


Rubber Soul

by MayRaven1798



Series: Disco Crack [3]
Category: Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Crossover, F/M, Family Drama, Kidnapping, Porn With Plot, Rarepair, too many androids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-14 17:55:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 35,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28674816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayRaven1798/pseuds/MayRaven1798
Summary: Lore has been stalking Tilly for some time and after their brief comms call he has decided that enough is enough. He wants to steal her away and make her his. Originally I was going to set this after the Discovery season three finally, but I started working on it early and now there would be too many changes to make...so this is set before the two part season finally which means it shouldn’t have any spoilers really.This is my first story using song lyrics to set the tone AND my first ‘porn with plot’ type story. So there is plot but there is also a lot more sex than I usually include.If any of this appeals to you then please keep reading. Cheers!Update: Later Chapters have more Discovery Crew as the pair end up back on Tilly’s home turf.
Relationships: Data/Geordi La Forge, Lore/Sylvia Tilly
Series: Disco Crack [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2083119
Comments: 82
Kudos: 14





	1. Nowhere Man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay kids. This one was born from combining my one shots between Lore (ST:TNG) and Sylvia Tilly (ST:DISCO) AND my characterization and backstory for Lore in my story ‘Lore and Lee’. I hope to keep this light and fun and without needing to read any previous stories of mine. Although I highly encourage you to at least read the one shots. They are short and cracked.
> 
> Basically this Lore is jaded, but has been in love before and he can get super obsessive and downright horny—plus he’s a self-centred asshat with his own rules when it comes to morality. Poor Tilly what has she gotten herself into?
> 
> Tilly is referenced from watching Discovery and good old Memory Alpha for some of the trickier details. I make no claim to depicting her completely correctly. Though I do love how she will curse in front of a senior officer when she’s nervous, but can’t remember to swear outwardly when she is pretending to be her Mirror-verse self. Too cute! She is socially awkward, but is a good and loyal friend and becomes known for her quirky personality. She also tends to get quiet if she becomes afraid or stressed. So let’s see if I can get her a little right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek TNG or Discovery or their characters. Nor do I won any rights to the Beatles and their lyrics.

**********

“He’s a real nowhere man,  
Sitting in his nowhere land,  
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody”

**********

It had been ages since Lore had seen his brother, or anyone he knew well. Decades since he had bothered taking a lover. He was over the whole lone wolf thing and life was basic and boring since the Burn. It took soooo much longer to get anywhere. That Osyraa woman had tried to recruit him once. Now SHE was a piece of work; but she wasn’t his type. He would have rather dissected her for fun and try to figure out why exactly Orions were so green.

The android sighed deeply and rolled over. A small maintenance mechanoid buzzed by his bed posts and he called it back.

“Hey, Fred,” he barked. “You missed a spot.”

The little discus rumbled back and sent a sensor beam over the floor, frantic to find the mess it missed. It whirled and turned about and searched. Then it searched again, making little beeps and sputters almost like it was getting flustered.

“Just kidding, Fred,” Lore told it, laughing loudly at the bot. “You did a bang up job like always.”

If Fred could have given him the middle finger it would have. It let out a few rude sounding noises and took off out the door.

“So testy today,” Lore huffed as he watched the thing disappear out of sight. 

The robot came with the ship, which of course was stolen. He and Fred were old buddies by now, but it didn’t have much of a sense of humour. 

Lore checked for any sub-space messages. Of course the computer would alert him if he had any, but he was bored and thinking of HER again.

“Come on Red...don’t be like that,” he whined. He closed his eyes and replayed that wonderful moment when she flashed her lovely large breasts his way. It wasn’t so much her bountiful bosom that caught his attention, but the delicate rose coloured lace of her bra framing them just so. It was divine. He never would have guessed that a trash talker like her was such a girly-girl.

He had given into temptation. He had sent along some spyware with his encrypted communication, but had yet to try it out. While she was humming and hawing about meeting for a hook up, he was bugging her comms system.

Lore bounced off of his bed and walked up to the main command center of his little ship. He landed in his chair in front of his computer console and began tapping the keys.

It was fairly old-school, no adaptive matter or synchronized holo-tech. That stuff was annoying and too gimmicky for him. He liked his computer to remain static and keys he could actually feel.

His fingers danced and entered his encrypted code, making his viewer spring to life. The screen showed an empty crew cabin. Typical, Ensign Sylvia Tilly was not at home. Then something suddenly ran across the screen, making him jump. It was a large cat of some kind.

“What the...?” 

Grudge seemed to aware of his spying. Which was impossible. At least it should have been impossible. But there she was, sitting in the middle of floor and looking straight up at the comm holo-projector unit.

“Huh? Clever minx,” he mused as he continued to watch the feline. 

It was almost two hours later when he heard the door swish open. Luckily, he had nothing better to do with his time and was close by. Lore leaned forward and squinted at the screen. It looked like Tilly had a friend with her; a very petit specimen with long braided hair.

“Nice. Maybe we’ll get some girl on girl,” he said with anticipation, to absolutely no one. Even Fred wasn’t around.

“What did I tell you about the cat being in our room?” complained Tilly as she pointed at Grudge.

“Oh come on,” said Michael with a grin. “The queen was recovering. She only needed somewhere quiet to rest. And let’s face it you’re so busy that you’re almost never here.”

“Uh huh...well, this is my sanctuary. Just because you and Book are bumping uglies doesn’t mean I get stuck with HIS cat. Queen or no,” Tilly countered defensively.

“Bumping uglies..? Ouch. I thought you were all for me moving on and having some romance in my life?”

“Ugh! I am...I am...it’s just that...”

As she trailed off Lore filled in the blank she left behind. “You’re lonely,” he purred with a bemused smirk. “Can’t stand your bestie getting all the attention.”

“Hey did you hear that?” asked Michael as she quirked her head and listened intently.

Lore slapped a hand over his mouth. He was sure that the feed was only one way. They should not have been able to hear him speak.

“No, I don’t hear anything,” replied Tilly. “But I think Grudge does,” she added as she observed the alien feline watching the ceiling.”

“It’s like a clicking,” said Michael as she looked up as well.

Lore wondered if it was the audio bug he had used. Dumb substandard program that it was. Since he could probably read their lips, if they stayed within view, he shut it off. 

“I still don’t hear anything,” said Tilly.

“Strange. I think it stopped. Maybe it’s the air circulatory. If it happens again I’d have someone check it.”

“Maybe it’s all the extra cat dander and hair clogging the system,” remarked the ensign.

Michael laughed and patted her friend on the shoulder. “Fine. I get it. Help me get Grudge into her carrier and I’ll take her back to Booker.”

“Good. Thank you,” sighed Tilly.

Lore could tell that nothing kinky was about to go down and he really didn’t feel like watching two grown women wrangle an oversized cat into a carrier. So he shut off the feed, satisfied that it worked.

“What is with organics and cats?”

Fred whirled into the room. Seemingly as if to offer him someone to converse with.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he said to the bot. “You are far superior and in no way resemble a pet.”

Fred spun around and light up, making elated little musical tones.

“That’s right. We synths will always be better.”

Lore thought of how he had once had an entire squadron under him. Each and every individual android ready to die fighting for their independence. Now he commanded no one. He even let Fred do what it liked most of the time. Occasionally, he would scatter dirt on the floor to give the little mechanoid purpose.

“Maybe that’s what Sylvia is,” he pontificated out loud. “She’s my dirt and I need to find a way to bring her to me. Hmm, but how?”

Fred beeped and flashed and danced around. To anyone else it was nonsense, just a bunch of noise and colour. But Lore understood his small friend.

“Right. Starfleet loves to play hero,” he said as he stroked his chin in thought. “I could fake a distress call. Make it looked like this old clunker is breaking up. There’s just one problem, Fred. I could find myself surrounded by Starfleet officers, not just sweet, voluptuous Ensign Tilly.”

The robotic discus twirled and sang a new song at him.

“Huh...good idea,” he said, surprised by his companion’s plot. “I never would have thought of that.”

Now that Lore had a plan he just had to wait for the right opportunity to arise. He just hoped it would be soon.

.......

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Lesson for today...Don’t mistreat your ‘Roomba’ (oops had misspelled with wrong meaning—thank you reader). It’s smarter than you think. Fred was one of those spur of the moment things. It is inspired by the little robots we see around Discovery...but really I feel like they stole them Red Dwarf and Star Wars. Or maybe I did. Either way, Lore needed a sidekick.


	2. With a Little Help From my Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the help of her friends, Tilly finally opens the file on Lore and gets a glimpse into the person who has been stalking her.

**********

“What would you do if I sang out of tune  
Would you stand up and walk out on me  
Lend me your ears and I’ll sing you a song  
I will try not to sing out of key”

**********

Tilly was deep in thought. Starfleet Command was kind enough to allow her access the a file she requested. All she had to do was open it. She stared at the name for what felt like the hundredth time and tapped her finger on the mess hall table.

“What are you looking at?” asked Joann Owosekun as she joined her friend for lunch.

“Nothing,” said Tilly dismissively as she tried to turn off the floating projection from her badge.

Keyla Detmer sat with her meal on a tray and managed to read the file name before the information blinked out. “What’s a Lore Soong? Is it a ship?”

“Maybe it’s a top secret maneuver,” joked Joann.

Keyla smirked at Tilly. “Come on, Tilly. We’re your friends. You can tell us,” she nudged playfully.

“It’s...well...he’s...” She struggled to find the words to tell them. Technically the file was classified and she shouldn’t have been reviewing it so casually. But she also hadn’t opened it so no harm was done.

“He?” echoed Joann with a chuckle.

“Look...he’s just this guy I ran into a few months ago. I finally learned his name and I just wanted to make sure he wasn’t shady,” Tilly told them, only slightly flustered.

“But you like him?” teased Keyla. “You’re blushing.”

Tilly waved her hands dismissively and scoffed. “What...no? I don’t even know him. He could be a murderer, or an assassin.”

“Or he could be like Cleveland Booker. You know, have a questionable past, but also a heart of gold,” said Joann.

“Yeah, right,” said Keyla, the voice of reason. “What are the chances of that?”

“Well, what did the file say?” prodded Joann.

Tilly swallowed hard and shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. I didn’t open it.”

Both women raised their brows and seemed to be egging her on. “Fine, I’ll open it, but it’s technically classified so I really shouldn’t be sharing it with anyone,” Tilly told them with reluctance.

“Then maybe you shouldn’t have been reviewing it in the mess hall,” noted Keyla.

The ensign couldn’t argue her logic. She let out a nervous puff of air and brought up the file again. This time she tapped it open, closing her eyes briefly as though the thing might literally explode in her face.

When Tilly opened her eyes she scanned the document. Joann and Keyla were hovering over each of her shoulders. Together they let out a collective gasp.

“Shit,” breathed Tilly as she closed the document and shut off the projection.

“I’ve never seen so many violations against humanity listed all together under one person before,” said Joann as she retook her seat in a daze.

“On the plus side they all look like they were committed centuries ago,” added Keyla, playing devil’s advocate.

“Yeah, but did you notice?” said Joann. “He was listed as missing presumed destroyed over seven hundred years ago. Who knows what he’s gotten up to since?”

“Wait what?” blurted Keyla.

“Lore is an android,” said Tilly. She felt numb and was finding it hard to breathe. What had she gotten herself into? This guy wasn’t just quirky, he was homicidal. His top two offences were conspiracy to commit genocide and murder in the first degree. 

“Seriously, that image looked so human,” her friend commented after reflecting. “Well, except for the odd golden complexion.”

“That image must be old. He doesn’t really look like that anymore,” said Tilly without thinking. Her two friends just stared at her.

“So...you really did meet this guy and lived to tell about it?” asked Joann apprehensively.

“Like I said before,” said Tilly with a flip her long tightly curled locks, “I sorta ran into him.”

“Well, let’s hope that never happens again,” said Keyla. 

Tilly had to agree. She never wanted to see Lore again if she could help it. Not after getting the lowdown on his colourful past. If he tried to connect with her in the future she would most definitely report him to Starfleet Command.

......

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone one is having a good day :) The fun will start soon.


	3. Help!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Discovery comes to the aid of a colony under attack, but things don’t go as expected.

“Help! I need somebody  
Help! Not just anybody  
Help! You know I need someone  
Help!

Help me if you can I’m feelin’ down  
And I do appreciate you being ‘round  
Help me get my feet back on the ground  
Won’t you please, please help me”

**********

It was about a week later when they got their new orders from Starfleet. There was an outlying colony that had sent out a sub-space distress beacon. Although small, it was still a faithful member of the Federation. It would take any other ship weeks to reach them and it was impossible to say if there would be anything left by then. That meant that approximately three thousand lives were depending on Discovery and her crew to come to their rescue.

Captain Saru announced the Black Alert and all hands braced for the Spore-drive jump. As soon as they arrived at the designated coordinates they picked up the beacon immediately. 

When they got closer to the planet in question they detected a large, dangerous looking vessel. The strange thing was that when they attempted to hail it for an identification, it turned tail and headed away from the planet.

“That was odd,” commented Saru. He looked to Comdr Burnham, but she could only shrug her shoulders.

“Sir, we are being hailed from the surface,” announced Lt. Bryce. “Audio only.”

“Put them through,” commanded Saru.

There was an air of concern throughout the Bridge crew as they listened to the crackling voice in distress.

“This is Chancellor Voreen. Thank the heavens you are here, Starfleet. The Chain was about to wipe out our largest marketplace. Possibly killing many of the merchants and farmers we depend upon.”

“Hello Chancellor,” replied Saru in his most neutral tone. “I am Captain Saru of the USS Discovery. I am glad we could assist you, however we have never seen a ship associated with the Chain give up so quickly. Is there any chance that members of its crew beamed down to the surface?”

“We have scout parties sweeping our capital now. If there are enemy agents amongst my people we will find them.”

“If you are amenable, I would like to send an away team down to assist you and perhaps to review your security detection sensor array. An upgrade in technology may help you in any future attacks.”

“We would appreciate any assistance you can offer, Captain Saru. We took on damage to our planetary weapons defences as well.”

“We can attend to those from here. I will send a team down now to assess the damage on the surface,” the captain suggested firmly, “Discovery out.”

He turned to Burnham and Tilly and they knew they were expected to go on his behalf.

“Sir, I would like to take Lt. Rhys as well,” said Tilly.

“Of course,” affirmed Saru. “He can facilitate the repairs to the planetary defences from the surface.”

The three officers stood near one another and tapped there badges, engaging the transport function. A moment later they materialized in a large hall, bustling with people. A very tall, regal looking man approached them. He had two other soldier type individuals following behind him.

“You must be from Discovery. I am Chancellor Voreen,” said the tall man. “I will escort you to the relays so that you can assist us in our repairs.”

“Of course, thank you,” replied Tilly, taking the lead.

Michael had to smile at how easily her friend was fitting into her new roll as number one. 

It was half a day later when they were satisfied with the work done on the relays. The three Discovery crew members decided to take a few minutes and explore the vast marketplace that they had supposedly helped to save.

It was massive, like something out of Ancient Rome. There were streets upon streets of stalls and permanent kiosks. It was a land of plenty and no wonder that the Chain was eager to take it away from these free citizens of the Federation.

“I didn’t think places like this still existed,” commented Michael as she looked around her. She laughed as she watched two young children play around their parents with a small domestic dog-looking animal.

“I suppose Vulcan must be like this,” noted Gen Rhys.

“Ah, you mean Ni’Var,” corrected Tilly. 

“Sorry, yes,” added Rhys.

“Either is fine by me,” said Michael, trying to put her friend at ease. “And you are probably right, but they don’t let just anyone down to the surface anymore.”

“‘Cause they always did,” commented Tilly with a touch of sarcasm.

“They’ve always been cautious,” noted Michael.

“Of course and these days you definitely can’t be too careful,” said Rhys.

The team was getting ready to beam back to their ship when Saru called down to them.

“It would seem our antagonist is back,” said the Captain with tension lacing his words. “You will have to stay put since we were forced to raise our shields.”

“Understood,” said Tilly. “We’ll go back to the safety of the city hall and wait for your word.”

“Good choice,” quipped Burnham as they started back towards the large building.

They were further away than they originally thought and they began to spread word that another attack might be imminent, advising families and merchants alike to seek shelter. 

When they were only a few streets from shelter a raiding party beamed down and began an assault in the market.

“Shit!” cursed Ensign Tilly as she drew her weapon. Burnham and Rhys had their phasers ready too and together they started to draw fire away from the civilians.

“We are going to need help down here, Saru,” called Michael into her badge.

“We are aware of the insurgence, but cannot drop our shields at this time,” replied the captain with regret.

“What about Booker?” asked Tilly. “Can he fly low enough to take these bastards out?”

Michael shook her head. It was a good idea, but there were too many people running around. It was chaos and he could very easily cause more damage than the help he could provide.

“It’s too crowded,” she told her. “In theory it would be great, but we can’t risk it. Besides they might need him up there.”

Of course the three of them weren’t alone either. The Chancellor’s armed forces were standing by and already deployed to help their people defend themselves and find cover, but their numbers were limited. Which made everything all the more haphazard.

Tilly found herself down an alleyway. She spotted one of the insurgent soldiers attacking a civilian who was cowering and cornered in a dead-end.

“Hey! Leave the poor guy alone!” she shouted before firing at the masked menace. 

She hit him in the shoulder and he took off running. She desperately wanted to follow to finish the job of incapacitate the enemy, but stopped to make sure the citizen was alright first. He was crouching close to the ground with a dark cloak covering his face. She wasn’t sure if he was injured.

“Are you hurt?” she asked softly as to not frighten him further.

The man looked up at her and smiled. His pale golden face all too familiar.

“Lore!?” she blurted with indignation.

Instead of making some intelligent remark back, he unexpectedly scowled and yelled, “Behind you!”

It was too late. The soldier had doubled back and shot her. Tilly flew against a pile of crates and hit her head. Lore ran to her side. He snatched her phaser, adjusted the setting and vaporized their attacker.

He moved next to Tilly and desperately checked for a pulse. It would be awful if he had come all this way just to watch her die in front of his eyes. Luckily, she was only stunned. He watched her breathe in and out for a few breaths and pressed a hand to the wound on her forehead. Then he plucked off any tech on her uniform and tossed it away.

It was time to go. Tilly was unconscious in his arms and Lore could not have been happier.

......

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Our duo is finally together!   
> Does anyone else the old style communicators now that Discovery is so high tech? Sigh. I did so enjoy the original gadgets and such.


	4. Oh Darling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tilly and Lore get better acquainted which leads to some interesting insight into the android kidnapper.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, this Lore is based on my own AU but it is not necessary to read the other stories. I just wanted a jumping off point to give him some layering without starting from scratch.

“Oh! Darling please believe me  
I’ll never do you no harm  
Believe me when I tell you  
I’ll never do you no harm”

**********

Tilly’s head was throbbing. The last thing she remembered was a phaser blast and then nothing. Was she dead? She slowly blinked open her eyes. It was painful to focus, even in the dim light. This clearly was not Sickbay. She sensed someone shuffling around nearby, but had to close her eyes again. 

“It’s going to be alright. You’re safe now,” she heard someone say. The voice was distinctly male, but not familiar. But she was such a disaster right now she probably wouldn’t have recognized her own mother’s shrill voice.

Suddenly, there was a cool cloth on her forehead and hypospray being pressed against her neck. Before she could put up a struggle it was already releasing something into her blood stream. Whatever it was gave an almost immediate relief to her migraine.

Tilly opened her eyes again and came face to face with last person she wanted to see. He was concealed by a dark cloak, but she would know his yellow eyes anywhere. Then she remembered it was him in the alleyway.

“Lore, get away from me,” she groaned as she recoiled from him. The cloth fell from her forehead and she could see touches of blood on it. 

“Easy, Sylvia,” he said in an unexpectedly soothing manner. “You hit your head fairly hard when you were stunned.”

She narrowed her ocean blue eyes at him. “Don’t call me that. No one calls me ‘Sylvia’ except my mom.” 

This was the second time she had thought of her mother in past few minutes and for some reason it was too painful to keep herself together. 

“And my mom is dead,” she blathered, “so is everyone else we left behind. They died centuries ago. And now my crew probably thinks that I’m dead. Which makes sense because you’re probably going to kill me. I mean, that’s what you do. Kill people for fun, right?”

Lore shifted uncomfortably and stood up from where he was perched on the edge of the bed. Sure he had killed the sonofabitch who shot her, but that was a necessary evil. 

“Why would you think that?” he asked. His voice was quiet and edged with hurt.

“Because I’ve read your official rap sheet,” she countered, voice trembling. “It’s very impressive and all together horrifying.”

“Did you report me, then? Is there a new alert out for my arrest?” he snapped coldly.

“What? No. I stupidly didn’t say a word to anyone...well not officially,” she confessed. She had told her friends about their encounter, but seeing as it was months ago there was very little to say.

“So I track you down and—like a fool—tell you how I feel about you and you what? You just can’t help yourself from digging into my past?”

He made it sound like he had given her overtures of love. The truth was he told her that she was hot and he wanted to mess around with her. She was flattered but unimpressed.

“I have to protect myself,” she rebutted sharply. “I don’t even know you!”

“Well you still don’t, Red. That old file is ancient history. Those atrocities were committed by someone else.”

“You mean figuratively. Because as far as I can tell you are still Lore Soong. Hell, you stalked me so hard that you found me on some remote planet and took the first opportunity you could to abduct me!”

The android stood for a moment in the doorway of the small room. He was looking at his feet, not at her. “I have to finish adjusting my damn replicator,” he grumbled, as though their exchange hadn’t just gotten volatile. “It’s been some time since I needed it make anything safe for organics to consume. I can’t promise anything, but I’ll do what I can.”

“And then what? You’ll just keep me around to amuse yourself? No thanks. I think I’d rather starve,” she said without kindness.

His eyes locked with hers then, blazing with renewed fury. “You ungrateful bitch! Why not just say thank you!? I did save your sorry ass! I could have left you there to die!”

“Maybe you should have!” she shouted in return.

Lore let out a sharp growl of distain and stormed off, the door closing behind him. Tilly bit back tears and touched her fingers to her hairline. There was quite the gash, about an inch and half long. 

She picked up the cloth and dabbed it at the wound while she began to wonder if maybe she had overreacted a tad. Maybe he had rescued her from an impossibly terrible fate. But she still couldn’t shake the foreboding feeling that he was only tending to her medical needs so that he could toy with her later. After all, what fun is prey if it’s too sickly to fight back?

......

After what felt like hours, Tilly heard a funny little rumbling outside of her door. Then the door open and closed on its own. Or at least that was how it seemed from her vantage point where she lay on the bed. 

The young woman sat up and looked down at the floor. A small circular robot was making its way across the floor. 

“Fuck. You mean the door wasn’t locked?” she complained to herself. She hadn’t even bothered trying it, believing she was the madman’s (mad android’s) prisoner.

As if replying to her lament the little bot made a series of blips and beeps at her and flashed different coloured lights. 

“I hope that wasn’t you talking to me, because I don’t speak robotic,” she mused.

A moment later Lore came through the door and gave her a look of suspicion. 

“Come on, Red, you’ve only been holed up in here for a couple of hours and you’re already cracking up?” he asked with concern. Then he caught sight of Fred and rolled his eyes. “Oh, she’s talking to YOU,” he added with a an exasperated sigh. 

“Is that for me?” Tilly inquired, indicating the plate in his hand. It looked like some sort of sandwich.

“Maybe. Are you gonna be nicer to me?” She could have sworn he was pouting and it was almost cute.

“I think I can try to be,” she told him sweetly with a small smile. 

“Good,” he stated and then handed her the plate. 

On closer inspection she could see there was a bite out of one corner. When he caught her questioning expression he explained himself. “I had to take a bite to analyze it. Despite what you may think of me I don’t want to poison you.”

“Oh, well thanks,” she said in earnest. Then she took a hesitant nibble. She grinned when it actually tasted like a chicken sandwich and not like cardboard. “So who’s your friend?” she added and gestured towards the maintenance robot.

“That’s Fred. It’s really opinionated, but you probably won’t understand a thing it says so you can just ignore it.”

Fred must have taken offence to Lore’s suggestion because it spun around really fast and let out a few louder than normal beeps.

“Rude!” Lore shouted back at the bot. 

“Oh no, now I have to know what Fred said,” nudged Tilly between mouthfuls. Turned out she was really quite hungry.

“He said that I’m the hothead and you should be ignoring me,” he huffed with annoyance.

Tilly couldn’t help but laugh, which was a bad idea because she had a mouth full of sandwich. She started to choke a little, but recovered. Lore pulled out a flask from one of the deep pockets in his cloak and handed it to her.

“Before you ask, it’s water,” he told her firmly.

She decided to believe him and drank down the cool liquid, clearing her throat. “Thank you,” she said when she was able to speak again. “For the water, for the food...for saving me. For everything.”

Lore’s face softened and he smiled a little. “You’re welcome,” he replied. “I do intend to return you to your people. It’s just that my ship is old and I took on some damage getting us the hell out of there. So I need some time to complete some repairs before I start trying to locate Discovery. You understand that I am far from comfortable about approaching just any old Starfleet vessel, right?”

Tilly nodded. “Yeah, I get it.” 

Lore looked as though he was about to leave her alone and for some reason she didn’t want him to go yet. 

“So...this is your ship? You live here just you and Fred?”

He gave her another one of his curious looks, like he was amazed that she was willing to make conversation. “Yeah, that’s right.”

“I’m sorry, but why is robot named ‘Fred’?”

“Because Fred is an Infrared Scanning Maintenance Droid.”

“Good thing you didn’t nickname it ‘Red’ or now there would be two of us,” she teased.

“Hmm, good thing,” he joshed, “wouldn’t want the robot thinking I had the hots for it. That could get awkward.”

Tilly thought that sounded so funny that she snorted when she laughed. Then she immediately covered the lower half of her face in embarrassment. Lore grinned from ear to ear as she drank some more water and pretended like nothing happened.

“Have you always been so solitary?” she asked, hoping to continue on and forget about how unladylike she had just been. “I mean...you must have had other companions; friends or lovers?”

“I’m not super great at making friends,” he admitted easily. “And sure I get the itch for physical release every now and then, but I’m not really good at commitment.”

“All these centuries and you’ve never settled down? Not once?” She honestly wasn’t trying to provoke him. She found it hard to believe that even a supposed criminal mastermind like him had never allowed himself to become involved with someone special. Especially after the way he seemed to be pursuing her so obsessively.

“Fine. It’s true...I had a family once a upon a time,” he confessed. “My wife was clever and beautiful; and somehow despite my less forgiving attributes she agreed to share her life with me.”

“That’s...so wonderful,” Tilly said at a loss for anything more poignant.

“Sure until she died,” he said with a shrug of his broad shoulders. “That’s what organics do. They live, they make you love them entirely and then they die.” 

“Did she die young?” 

“Young, old...it doesn’t matter. It wasn’t enough time,” he told her ruefully. “What’s a few decades against centuries of loneliness?”

“I suppose you never had any children,” she wondered aloud, not expecting an answer.

“We had two girls. One of them had hair like yours, wild fiery curls,” Lore said with a chuckle.

Tilly stared at him blankly for a few beats. “You...you were a father?”

“I bet that wasn’t in my official file.”

“No, it certainly wasn’t,” she said, awestruck. She really wanted to learn more, but was afraid to press her luck.

Lore came closer and took her empty plate from where she placed it on the bed. For the first time since her arrival she became intrigued about his appearance; recalling how different he had looked in his Starfleet profile. Something about his face was slimmer and his hairline was different too. At least where he had hair. 

He must have sustained damage to his head at some point and never bothered to replace the hair he had lost. In a way he reminded her of her friend Keyla with her ocular implant making it necessary for her scalp to be permanently altered.

“Umm. I have to ask,” she said, getting his attention one more time. She desperately wanted to ask about his face, but chickened out and settled for his clothing. “What is with the ominous cloak? Is that, like, supposed to intimidate people, or is it just a fashion choice?”

He shook his head and sighed. “You must have noticed by now that tech and supplies are both difficult to come by and terribly expensive since the Burn.” He waited as she nodded. “Well, this cloak not only makes it more difficult to be recognized, it also helps to conceal a multitude of issues.”

“Issues?” she repeated, dying to know what he meant.

“I may have been a tad ambitious in my desire to hook up with you,” he explained. “See, over the comm system I can show you a hologram of myself. I could have danced around naked and looked like a perfect Adonis.”

Tilly bit her lower lip and tried not to snort again at his overly inflated ego. 

“In truth, I’m kind of a mess under here. Damaged bioplast, exposed inner workings, scarring and other nasty secrets. I get by but I am way overdue for some serious TLC. I mean, you saw me a few months back when my hood fell off, so you have a good idea of what I’m talking about.”

She had to really think about it; they’re encounter. She really couldn’t picture anything odd about how he had looked other than his hair. Maybe he had had a scar on the side of his head as well? She couldn’t be sure. She usually fixated on the memory of his intense eyes and perfect lips and the way she swore he liked it when she pressed her knee into his groin. 

She suddenly became aware that she was blushing and had to turn away from his intimidating stare. Unfortunately, Lore mistook her embarrassment over her feelings of attraction as a bad reaction to his physical shortcomings. So he decided to make a retreat.

“You should rest now. There’s a bathroom through that door and this one will stay unlocked,” he said as he pointed around him like a flight attendant. “Unless of course you want some privacy. Then feel free to lock me out. I’ll let you know how the repairs are going in the morning.”

Before Tilly could say anything Lore was gone. Of course, as he said, the door wasn’t locked and she could have gone after him. But she decided to let him go. She did need to rest and it didn’t seem like she would be returning to Discovery for quite some time.

.......

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay next one gets to the point :)


	5. I Want to Hold Your Hand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tilly explores her new surroundings and gets closer to Lore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is what you’ve probably been waiting for. I hope it’s not disappointing. Thanks you for reading :)

“Oh please say to me  
You’ll let me be your man  
And please say to me   
You’ll let me hold your hand

And when I touch you  
I feel happy inside  
It’s such a feeling that my love  
I can’t hide.”

**********

Tilly slept for several hours, but then woke sometime in the night. She was disorientated and afraid even after she remembered where she was and why she was there. Lore seemed to want to help her, but it still felt rather like she had no choice in when she could go home.

While she lay alone in the dark her brain made the leap and guessed that she was probably in Lore’s bed. That was if he actually slept at all. This thought bothered her a lot and no matter what she tried she couldn’t get back to sleep.

She entered the bathroom and switched on the light. She hadn’t taken time to examine her forehead before now and she grimaced at the gash. It was starting to heal over thanks to whatever Lore had put in that hypospray, but it still looked mildly bruised and there was blood caked in her hair.

After making sure that the door was closed, Tilly let her hair down from its high ponytail. Her hair was getting quite long these days, the longest strands almost reaching her lower back now that it was loose. She slowly removed her uniform and checked herself for any further wounds, or abrasions. 

Other than the hint of a bruise on her right elbow and right hip—to match the gash on the right side of her forehead—she only had minor evidence of a phaser burn on her back, to the left of course. Satisfied that she was going to live after all, she turned the taps and started the water in the shower unit. Much to her surprise the water looked clean and clear. She remembered at the last moment to search for a towel. Luckily, there was one tucked away under the sink and it appeared to be clean.

It was wonderful to stand under the warm, relaxing water. Discovery had the new ‘sonic’ showers that she never cared for. The feeling of sonic waves never did have the same refreshing feeling as soap and water. She did, however, make a mental note not to use up too much water. So after a few minutes of soaping up and getting clean she reluctantly ended her experience.

Tilly didn’t really feel like putting her dirty uniform and undergarments back on. So she investigated the bedroom until she came upon a set of drawers in the wall. She rooted through them, careful to keep things from looking as though she had snooped. She came out with a pair of boxer briefs which she put on as underwear and a matching, form-fitting grey top and bottoms. It made her wonder if these were Lore’s clothes, or just items he happened to pick up over the years.

Once dressed, she sat on the bed and ran her fingers through her wet tresses. She used the towel to try to pull out most of the water. She felt fairly awake by now and decided to go see what was happening outside of her door. So she pulled her boots on, no sense temping fate and injuring her bare feet, and went off to explore.

Outside the bedroom was a small corridor. At the end of that there was a ramp that inclined quite steeply up to another level. She followed it and came out in an area that looked like the main deck of the ship. That being said, it was small with one large flat command console and only one chair. She caught sight of a pair of legs under the console, the rest of her captor was hidden from view. 

“Hey, Lore,” she said, announcing herself. “How’s it going under there?”

“Isn’t it rather soon for you to be up already?” replied a disembodied voice. 

“I guess I’m up,” she told him casually. “You know I am an engineer—a damn fine one actually—and I could help you.”

She could hear Lore stop whatever he was doing. “Fine. Back off and turn around,” he commanded bluntly.

Tilly was confused. She couldn’t understand why he asking her to something so strange, but then she realized that his cloak was hanging on the back of the chair. 

“Oh come on, no need to be shy,” she teased. “If we’re going to be spending time together in such close quarters you need to get used to my seeing you as you are.”

“It’s not me that I’m worried about,” he said frankly.

“Well, still. Maybe I can help you with your personal repairs too. If you’ll let me, that is.”

She heard Lore expel a long breath of air. A moment later he slid out from under the console and sat up, but remained on the floor. She could see why he was so worried. A lot of other people would have been terrified. 

He was shirtless and by the looks of it his left arm had been skinned, leaving his metallic bones exposed along with all the connective wiring. He had similar exposures on both sides of his rib cage and along the left side of his neck near his clavicle. As a woman of science Tilly was fascinated.

The thing that did startle her had nothing to do with the android elements she could see. It was the very realistic, flesh toned skin that went all the way from his shoulders, down his chest and disappeared below the top of his pants.

“I don’t understand,” she muttered as she joined him on the floor to get a closer look. “You have freckles and chest hair...but your face is golden like it’s always been.”

“Isn’t it horrible? Don’t I look like something Frankenstein himself would have abandoned?” he half-joked in a self-deprecating way.

“Yeah, well Frankenstein was a monumental asshole. He would have abandoned anyone or thing he made,” she rebutted crassly. 

Lore couldn’t help but laugh and she was happy to put him more at ease. However, his mirth was short lived. He became quite serious again when she boldly reached out her hand and touched his synthetic skin, laying her fingers delicately on one of his flesh coloured, well defined pectorals.

“I’m sorry that you can’t look this good everywhere,” she said with unbidden honesty as she continue to boldly explore his chest.

“I did once. I had blue eyes and everything,” he found himself telling her, lost in the intimacy of her closeness.

“And your face?” she added as she looked into his eyes.

Lore was distracted and not really listening to her question. He was studying her now and threading his elegant fingers through her loose ringlets. He adored seeing her fresh, clean face without the harsh black makeup adorning her eyes. She looked so young and innocent.

“You are so lovely,” he whispered with a touch of sadness. “I wish I could look more attractive for you.”

His words stirred something inside her and right away she knew that this was a bad idea. 

She never should have sat down with him and certainly never should have touched him without asking first. Because now he was touching her and his hand moved from playing with her hair to cupping her face, his thumb seductively brushing against her bottom lip. She kept trying to remind herself that this person was dangerous and that he wasn’t really a person at all. He could have been lying about having a family, manipulating her into feeling sorry for him; wanting her see a humility in him that wasn’t real.

But here she was on the floor with him; and the way he was looking at her made her want him—need him. So against her better judgement she leaned in and kissed him hard. She was apprehensive at first, but loosened up when he responded. His mouth didn’t feel synthetic at all. He felt real and inviting and oh so good—like the shower had been. It made her feel warm and wonderful and wet.

That was when her eyes went wide and she pulled away. Lore had the beginnings of agitation playing on his expression, but she lifted his chin and made him focus on her.

“What state is your dick in? I mean mechanically speaking, assuming you have one?” she asked rather bluntly.

He let out a bark of laughter. “Luckily, my dick is one of the least damaged parts of my body.”

“Then...it’s functional?”

“Fully,” he said full of need.

“That’s all I needed to know,” she purred. 

Then she was attacking his mouth with her own again and straddling his lap. She ground down into his quickly engorging sex organ and was pleased that he was telling the truth. Lore had his hands fisted into her wild damp hair. This meant if Tilly wanted to get in his pants, she was going to have to the honours herself.

She redirected Lore’s mouth to her neck and was rewarded with equally arousing stimulation as he sucked and nipped his way behind her ear. She let out a giddy cry excitement when she pulled down the front of his pants to reveal the same beautiful, undamaged human-like skin adorning his perfect erection.

“It’s like Christmas and my birthday all in one,” she whispered breathlessly with delight.

“If I had known you were so easy to please I would have sent you image files of my dick a long time ago,” Lore chuckled into her neck, tickling her slightly and making her giggle even more.

As she lifted herself a little to wiggle out of her bottoms—technically they were his bottoms—Lore followed her without fail as though he was magnetized to her supple flesh. Before she could mount him, however, he insisted on touching her with his fingers first. He was very talented with his fingers. 

Tilly gasped and moaned as he dipped his long elegant fingers in and out, scissoring just so. With his face no longer buried in her neck she took the opportunity to remove her shirt, instantly drawing Lore’s attention to her bountiful breasts.

“Oh, gods. So beautiful,” murmured before burying his face between them and massaging each one with his eager hands. She hadn’t been wearing one of her tantalizing bras, but he didn’t care at the moment.

She couldn’t help but smile at how he worshiped her body. When he came back up and kissed her lips she could feel both of his hands find her hips. Suddenly, he was inside of her and he felt amazing. 

She was careful to keep her hands away from any of his exposed parts. Not because they repulsed her, but because she didn’t want to inadvertently damage him. She settled on placing her hands on his shoulders and riding him hard. Lore was almost as thrilled to watch her bounce on top of him as he was by the sensations of the act itself. 

It wasn’t long before Tilly started to orgasm. She was moaning loudly, her head thrown back. Lore’s mouth began to suck at one of her nipples and at some point she could tell that his fingers were back on her clit, helping her along. She lost track of just how many times she came and suddenly wondered how much more she could endure. With one final thrust, Lore finally let himself go. Either he was being quiet on purpose, or maybe she had blacked out before she could hear him climax. 

The next time Tilly was aware of anything, she found herself tucked into bed with Lore beside her. She was still completely naked, but he seemed to have pulled on the shirt she had borrowed, covering his arms and the most open areas of his torso. It was probably a good idea if she was being honest. 

She wasn’t sure if he was sleeping, but she snuggled into him nonetheless. She couldn’t see the sudden smile play on his lips in the darkness. The one thing she knew for sure was that in her heart she wanted to believe him. Whoever he had been in the past wasn’t who he was today. After all, what sort of monster would let his prey top?

......

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know the ‘fully functional’ line is cliche but I feel like it was something Lore would use because it was so cliche.


	6. While my Guitar Gently Weeps

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tilly is easily persuaded, but in the light of day knows she needs to find a means of escape in one becomes necessary.

“I look at you all  
See the lover that’s sleeping  
While my guitar gently weeps

I don’t know why nobody told you  
How to unfold your love  
I don’t know how someone controlled you  
They bought and sold you”

**********

Tilly stirred, no longer sure if it was night or day. She had lost track while in a haze of adrenaline and lust. She could feel something heavy trapping her against the mattress. Upon further inspection she discovered it was an arm, an android arm. She shifted her body and tried to move it so that she was more comfortable. Lore must have felt her movement because she could feel him begin kissing her neck from behind and the arm that was previously dead weight came to life.

Quickly, Lore’s greedy hand claimed one of her breasts. He was needing her flesh and pinching her nipple. She wasn’t sure if she minded all that much. If she was being honest with herself she knew she hadn’t had this much physical attention in ages. It wasn’t exactly like he was doing things that she didn’t like, or want.

“You awake?” she heard him murmur in her ear.

“Sorta,” she replied.

“Are you aware that you snore?”

It wasn’t exactly the sexy dirty talk she had been expecting and for some reason it made her nervous. 

“Very,” she replied in hushed tones. “I have these allergies. Funny story, I originally didn’t have a roommate on Discovery because of them...and the snoring.”

Lore tilted her head and covered her mouth with his own to stop her babbling. It seemed to do the trick because she found herself wordlessly wanting more.

“I wanna be inside of you,” he said with an insistence that was difficult to ignore.

Then he nibbled at her earlobe and wedged a knee between her legs. Tilly turned her head again and kissed him this time. It was messy, needy and provocative. He took her eagerness as permission to proceed. A moment later he roughly entered her vaginally from behind. 

This surprised her a little, but she enjoyed his naughty behaviour. He continued to pleasure her by attending to her chest while letting his other hand find a way between her legs. She moaned and willingly surrendered to him, letting him do whatever he wanted.

It was true that in her daily life Tilly was somewhat of an awkward wallflower. It was only after a few drinks that she ever felt confident enough to be openly sensual. Which was rare since joining Starfleet. Most of her sexual promiscuity happened pre-academy. So she couldn’t help from wanting to let herself go and live in a fantasy with Lore. Sure tomorrow she might wake up chained to a wall, but right now he was behaving like the man she needed him to be.

Lore had found the optimal angle to hit her g-spot and Tilly never wanted him to stop. She was finding it more and more difficult to keep up as he picked up his pacing and she could have sworn that his erection was suddenly larger. Not that she was about to complain about a sex-crazed android with an adjustable dick. The change was making her feel fuller, the tension causing her to orgasm harder and deeper.

He must have benefitted as well because he was suddenly coming hard, expelling his synthetic fluids inside of her. When they finally moved apart, Tilly lay on her back watching him in the dark and Lore did the same.

“Hmm, you do that with all the girls?” she joshed as she panted to catch her breath.

Lore leaned over and kissed her with same fever as before. She was so worked up that she just about orgasmed from his kiss alone. She moaned into his mouth despite knowing she had had enough for one go. Satisfied, he released her again and leaned back onto his pillow. 

“No,” he answered at long last. By now Tilly had forgotten what her question had been. He had kissed it right out of her brain.

“What?” she whispered, confused.

“You asked if I do that with all the girls,” he reminded her. 

“Oh,” she said as she gave it some thought.

“I think you’ve been misled,” he added after a moment. “I don’t go around kidnapping random women to fuck them.”

“No?”

“No.”

He wasn’t sure if she believed him. It didn’t really matter. It wasn’t like she needed to be in love him. He would have to let her go one day and her opinion shouldn’t really matter as long as he could keep her in his company for now.

“Whatever,” she yawned. 

Before he could question if she was having seconds thoughts, she rolled over and cuddled into his side again. She seemed too high on oxytocin and endorphins to be afraid of him.

......

When Tilly finally got up for the day she had another shower, shorter this time. She stood under the water cleaning she herself, her thoughts pulled to the notion that Lore had actually ejaculated something inside her. The scientist in her was fascinated, but the independent minded woman in her was worried. She reassured herself that androids had no means of reproducing through intercourse and it would be complete malarkey to say they could. 

She found more clothes to borrow and for a short while she sat on the bed, biting her nails. Partly out of boredom and partly from nerves. Since she had nothing better to do she picked up a PADD and started to make notes. Soon her notes became theories and formulas. 

She had been playing around with an idea in her head. She thought about offering to help Lore with his personal repairs again. Then if they ran out of arbitrary issues with his body that she should come up with a way of replicating his synthetic bioplast to replace the large areas he was missing. He didn’t seem to want to figure it out for himself and she had no idea how long some of his skin had been missing. In theory it might help him feel more human if he looked more human.

Lore stuck his head in the door and told her that he needed to go down into the bowels of the ship to assess what still needed repairing and what was actually plausible with the supplies he had on hand. He gave her a quick kiss on the forehead and reminded her to eat something.

Tilly found it hard to believe that until yesterday she used to think that her sweet, affectionate lover had been a dangerous, deceitful criminal. But the idea still lingered and she decided to make sure that she covered all her bases as far as her freedom was concerned.

She couldn’t believe her luck. Lore was so smitten that he trusted her alone in the main command area. Then she discovered that he had locked her out of any and all vital systems and it all made sense.

As Tilly finished her breakfast shake she started to tap a few buttons on the console. Sure the sex was great, but she had a life to get back to. She noticed for the first time how old the tech on this ship really was and smiled to herself. Older was always easier to get into. It also didn’t sound like the engine was running at all at the moment. They must have landed, or were in a stable orbit somewhere coasting along.

As she started to try and hack into the comms system Fred came up the ramp and started beeping at her.

“Shush,” she blurted. “Don’t go tattling on me. Lore expects me to at least try something. He knows I’m clever.”

Fred twirled on the spot, flashed red at her and let out a few more beeps and bops of complaint.

That was when whatever sequence she had entered did something. A small screen off to the side sprang to life and on it she could see an empty room from above, looking down. Tilly squinted and tilted her head as she stared in disbelief.

“That’s my fucking room!” she growled loudly. 

She began tapping desperately at the keys trying to see if she could jump to any other location on Discovery. It stood to reason that if Lore was bugging her room he could be bugging other places. Sadly, he wasn’t. Not that it mattered. She came to the conclusion that this was not a live feed. It was recorded from before he had ‘saved’ her. She was able to sift through the recording and found times when she was half dressed and others where she was completely naked.

“Fuck!” Tilly exclaimed as she hit the dash.

She wasn’t sure what pissed her off more; the fact that he was peeping in on her without her consent, or that she could not contact her ship through his spyware. 

She would have to find way to distract Lore until she could break through his elaborate coding and send Discovery a message. He seemed sincere in wanting to help her, but just in case he had no actual intention of letting her go, she wanted options.

She felt for the cut on her forehead, which was basically gone. She could distract him by being helpful to him, just as she had planned to do anyways. Maybe she could get him to open up more so that he might let slip more of his secrets.

As if reading her mind the computer suddenly displayed a folder of images. It must have popped up due to all her random button pressing. She was expecting a collection of stalker photos, all of her. But that wasn’t what she found.

“Who are all these people?” she asked Fred. Of course the robot couldn’t see what she could and she wouldn’t understand if it replied.

The first picture had five figures in it. There was a woman with waves of auburn hair with her arms around a much older man who looked quite a lot like Lore. Seated in front of them was a younger woman with short brown hair. She was laughing and holding an infant on her arms. The last person was a familiar golden hued android. He looked fairly unaffected by the merriment happening around him. 

Tilly looked over her shoulder to be sure that Lore wasn’t around. Then she went to the next image. This one was only of the young woman and the baby. She could see that the child had dark hair too, what there was of it. Tilly felt her cheeks burn. She knew it was irrational to feel guilty about having sex with Lore. Even if this vibrant beauty was his wife, she had died ages ago.

Tilly let herself sneak a peek at one more image. The background looked like a Starship of some kind. The baby was now a little girl with brown locks to her shoulders, a miniature of her mother; who was now wearing a uniform. 

It was different than any Starfleet uniform that Tilly had ever seen, but they were constantly changing and she would recognize one anywhere. It was shocking to think that Lore, a fugitive of the Federation, had married a Starfleet officer. She thought that maybe this was before it all went wrong. Of course it wasn’t, but how was she to know.

Tilly decided to close the file and not to keep snooping. If Lore wanted to show her these himself sometime that would be his choice. It was strange, however, that after all of these years he would still have a record of his family. Though, being an android, she supposed he could have captured the images directly from his own memory banks. It was still an odd thing to have them accessible on this computer when he could probably close his eyes and see them anytime he wanted.

Tilly had met some messed up people in her short career—Ash Tyler came to mind—but a sentient android who had existed for nearly a thousand years was difficult for even her to wrap her head around. 

......


	7. Eleanor Rigby (aka All the Lonely People)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter Tilly gets more pleasure from her meal than anyone should. She also sees another side of Lore.

“Ah, look at all the lonely people  
Ah, look at all the lonely people

Eleanor Rigby   
Picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been  
Lives in a dream  
Waits at the window   
Wearing a face that she keeps in a jar by the door  
Who is it for”

**********

After several hours of ‘pretty please’ and ‘come on let me try’, Lore finally gave into allowing Tilly to do her thing to try and fix some of his more obvious problems with his body. The ones he had trouble reaching himself. She had noticed he often strained with the range of motion in his shoulders. It was like his gears were grating against each other and his pistons were not up to snuff.

“Now I’m not a specialist,” she said half-jokingly, “but how different could repairs on an android be to repairing a Starship?”

“You would be surprised,” he told her, full of skepticism. “Hey, watch it!” he shouted a moment later. Whatever she was touching in his exposed dorsal area sparked and set off an internal warning.

“Oops-a-daisy,” she said as she shifted her position and re-fired the instrument in her hand.

“Okay, stop!” Lore roared as it twinged uncomfortably. He pulled away from her and stood up. “No person who says ‘oops-a-daisy’ should be poking around my delicate insides!”

“Hey get back here!” Tilly shouted back with indignation. “That is a thing a delicate person would say! Besides, now you have a cooling coil dangling out from under your shoulder blade. I’m sure you don’t want to keep it like that.”

Lore growled and reluctantly resumed his position on the work stool. “This is a waste of time.”

“We only got started ten minutes ago,” she scolded. “Geez, at least give me a full twenty before you take off in a huff.”

The android shot her a look that could kill over his shoulder. “Fine that means you have ten more minutes to dazzle me and earn my trust.”

“Make it fifteen and I’ll give you a hand job,” she countered playfully with a wag of her rust coloured eyebrows.

“Done,” he agreed with a satisfied smirk.

Much to her surprise fifteen minutes passed quickly and Lore didn’t make a peep about it. Three hours later and she needed a break. He watched her wipe the sweat from her lovely freckled forehead and smiled.

“Why are you grinning like that? You haven’t even tried your newly adjust rotator cuffs yet,” Tilly said warily.

Lore chuckled and stood up. Then he stretched and flexed his arms before performing a double windmill for her. Now they were both laughing with giddy delight. 

“That’s fantastic,” he said with genuine appreciation. 

“So glad I could help,” she said with a touch of fatigue.

Lore gave the young woman a once over and he could tell from her vital signs that she needed some nourishment and a nap.

He walked over to the replicator in the wall and tapped a few buttons. The machine produced a canteen, which he handed to her. “What do you feel like eating?”

Tilly opened the container, it held water just like the flask from before. She took a long drink, wiped her mouth and then answered him. “Does that thing do meatloaf? I would kill for meatloaf right now.”

Lore chuckled and reviewed his options. “Yeah, I think this old thing can manage that.” 

A few moments later her placed a plate and some cutlery on the console for her. Tilly eyeballed his offering and she made a face.

“What? That’s what you asked for, isn’t it?” he asked not understanding her problem.

It was definitely meatloaf and it looked and smelled delicious. Tilly picked up the fork and poked the grouping of greens next to it.

“Oh? Do vegetables offend you?” he scoffed.

“I don’t really like asparagus...it tastes weird and makes your urine smell even weirder,” she whined.

“Okay, fine,” he conceded. Of course to him any urine of any kind smelled weird so he really didn’t care. “Would you prefer carrots, or broccoli?”

The young woman shrugged a shoulder and continued to poke the dark emerald stalks. “Mheh,” she murmured.

“What are you, six years old?” Lore was sure he never had this much protest from his own children about eating their veggies. “You know what? I don’t care. You’re a grown ass woman. The replicator is there.” He gestured at the device before turning his attention to the tools that she had left strewn about the place.

“Hey, leave those. We’re not done yet,” she told him adamantly.

“You’re tired. Eat and then rest. We can do more later,” he said kindly.

“I have worked double shifts four days straight on three hours of sleep. I think I can keep going.”

“Well that was Starfleet standards and this is literally my person...so fuck no. Eat and then rest.” As if to press his point he pulled his shirt back on over his head. He was pleased by how quickly he could move thanks to her repairs.

Tilly pouted a little before resigning to his terms. She took a mouthful of meatloaf and groaned. At first Lore was worried that it tasted bad, but then he saw the look on her face and knew better. 

“Is it that good, or are you really hungry?” She honestly looked like that food was satisfying her better than he had.

“Oh fuck, it is so good,” she moaned.

He had to stop and watch her for a few moments. Then curiosity got the better of him and grabbed her fork to try a bite. His taste buds, such as they were in their current state, informed him that it was synthesized ground beef prepared with a variety of synthetic seasonings, spices, etc. But there was nothing to explain her orgasmic reaction.

“I don’t get it, but I’m glad you like it so much,” he commented as he handed her back the utensil.

“You know, there was this group of mean girls at one of my schools when I was a kid,” she rambled between bites. “Their leader started a rumour that I was a carrot top because my mom used to force feed me carrots because I was too fat and she was trying to make me thinner.”

Lore decided this was some convoluted excuse as to why she didn’t care for vegetables.“I never understood that term...carrot tops are green,” he muttered.

“Seriously that’s your takeaway?”

“You know that you’re not fat, right? You happen to be more voluptuous than the average woman, but I think it suits you.” 

It was the truth. The way some women (and men) pushed themselves to conform to a body image that was unattainable naturally was ridiculous. Even over so many centuries this aspect of beauty standards still came up now and then. Whether it was the desire to be thin, heavy, muscular, or lean. It was one of those things about organics that he couldn’t be bothered with.

“I get that you’re okay with it. It can be difficult convincing a military entity like Starfleet that you aren’t morbidly obese and you can actually pass your physicals.”

Lore frowned at her comment. “My wife would complain about her curves too. But that’s a little more complicated I guess,” he said with a vague hint of omitting some important detail. “She decided to homeschool our girls for the most part so that she could foster their individuality. She didn’t want any of the other children to call them freaks,” he confided.

Tilly stopped eating and stared at him. Her mind was instantly drawn to the images she had found. She wondered if there had been one of him with his human looks and regretted not quickly reviewing all of them. 

“I don’t understand. Why would they do that? You looked human back then, right?” she asked, thinking it was because of him they would be admonished.

“Sure, but my girls were really far more intelligent than any kids their own ages and our younger daughter...well she was physically different.”

“What do you mean?” She could tell that he didn’t really want to be telling her any of this and felt privileged that he would risk sharing this aspect of himself.

“She was small and pale and had these big dark eyes,” he said as though he was picturing her in his mind, which he probably was. “I didn’t want her to experience the prejudice I went through.”

“Hmm. I bet you were a good dad. It’s always the big scary guys that are teddy bears with their kids,” she mused. 

It was endearing to hear him talk about being protective of his children. It was more than either of her parents ever did for her, she was sure. She hadn’t seen her father in years and her mother barely bothered with their messages back and forth anymore. Not that it really mattered now, they had a distance of over nine-hundred years between them.

“I tried. I suppose that’s all a parent can do is try to the best of their ability,” he noted with a faraway look in his eyes. “But let’s not discuss it anymore.”

Tilly pushed her plate away and came over Lore’s side. She directed him to sit in the command chair. Then she joined him, sitting in his lap. It seemed that this was her preferred place to be. 

Lore wasn’t sure if she was getting turned on from picturing him as a good father, or if she was simply done eating and planned to fulfill her end of their bargain. 

“You don’t have to....”

She smiled coyly and toss her long hair over her shoulder. “I want to,” she hummed before kissing him. He couldn’t deny that he wanted her to as well.

She didn’t go for his pants right away. Instead she took her time and ran a finger delicately over the jagged line of scarring that ran from behind his left ear up to the crown of his head.

“Does this hurt?” she asked in hushed tones.

“Not anymore,” he replied, playfully bumping noses with her.

She giggled before kissing him again. Now she was opening the front of his pants and dipping her hand in to help free his erection.

“I must be as crazy as you are,” she murmured against his lips. “I should be demanding my freedom instead of helping you to function better.”

“Hey, less worrying about your sanity and more attending to mine,” he whined pressing into her warm, inviting hand. “‘Cause if you stop now I think my I will lose what’s left of my mind.”

She snorted at his obvious neediness. Then she gripped his dick and gave it a few strokes. She couldn’t help but giggle as he moaned loudly and squeezed her thigh with one hand as if to keep her in place.

“Is this what you mean?” she teased.

He looked into her eyes, his own hooded with pupils blown. He nodded and whimpered. She could tell that she had him exactly where she wanted him.

“You bugged my room didn’t you?” she asked with less fun and more seriousness.

Lore seemed to catch the change in her tone and was suddenly wondering what she was getting at. “So what if I did? I have you now.”

Tilly didn’t like his frank admission. He didn’t sound very remorseful. She tightened her grip at the base of his his erection, though Lore didn’t seem to mind so much. In fact, he laughed at her.

“If you think that hurts you’re wrong,” he told her rather luridly. “And if you think you’re strong enough to rip it off, be my guest and have at it.”

Her face went red and she gave his dick a cruel twist and a yank to test if he was bluffing. He cried out in the loudest and most sexual profane way imaginable. She instantly let go of him and jumped out of his lap.

“Oh come back...That was fantastic,” he taunted full of lust.

“I changed my mind. I don’t want to be your sex toy anymore,” she huffed. 

She couldn’t stop thinking about the people in those pictures and the mysterious past he was keeping from her. She needed a moment to get away from him and collect her thoughts. So she walked quickly down the ramp and out of sight.

Lore groaned with aggravation and put himself back in his pants. He got up and went to find her in the bedroom. Only for the first time door was locked. Of course it was.

“Do you want talk about what’s bothering you?” he said through the door. When she didn’t reply he added, “Look, Red, I didn’t ask you for the handy, you offered.”

Still nothing and he was getting worried. He didn’t take her for being a moody person. Passionate and driven, but not emotionally unstable. He banged on the door with his fist. 

“Sylvia, talk to me please. Yes, I bugged your external comm system, but you must have guessed that was how I found your ship. We both know that I’m a little crazy.”

Still nothing. So he clawed at the panel next to the door. Once the cover was removed he entered the emergency release code and stormed into the room—which was empty. The bathroom door suddenly opened and Tilly walked out. She wasn’t sure why he was looking at her like he had thought she was dead or something. He rushed over and full on bear hugged her.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” she muttered into his shoulder as she processed his strange behaviour.

“You locked the door and didn’t answer,” he told her as he rocked them both.

“Oh...I didn’t know I had locked it,” she said casually as she tried to pull out of his hold and failed. “Dude relax. If you really need to know I went into the bathroom to wash my hands after touching your nasty dick and then the running water made me need to pee. I wasn’t ignoring you because I didn’t hear you at the door. Like, at all.”

Lore stopped acting absurd and let her go. “Oh. Okay,” he said quite calmly.

“Oh okay?” she repeated as she looked at him weirdly. “Did you think I was in here killing myself because you mocked me? I have thicker skin than that.”

“No...I don’t know,” he said quietly and sat on the bed.

Tilly stared at him for a long moment. He was unfocused and unusually sullen. 

“Did someone do that? Did one of your abductees kill themselves?”

Lore seemed to break free of whatever had taken hold of him. He blinked up at her. “What? No. Never.”

“Then why did you get all weird?”

“I’m not weird. You’re weird,” he shot back like a defensive teenager. Boy did he sound like Paul Stamets.

“Okay. Well get off the bed. I want to have a nap,” she said like she owned the place.

Lore stood and moved out of her way.

“You’re sure you’re okay?” Tilly was well aware that she—the captive—really shouldn’t be the one asking if he—her captor—was okay. But nothing about this situation was all together normal. He was constantly claiming that she was not his prisoner, but then he basically said that he had her now, like some sort of prize.

When he shrugged and continued to look shaken she pulled him down to the bed with her. She touched his face and smiled sweetly. 

“We’re gonna finish the repairs on your crappy ship soon and then we’ll send a message to Discovery,” she said, reminding him of his promise. 

“Of course,” he assured her. 

“Why don’t you lie down with me, you look a little tired,” she suggested, giving him an excuse to stay close to her. 

Lore didn’t protest. He kicked off his boots and they got under the covers together. She felt him spoon her from behind and breathe deeply in her hair. She was beginning to wonder how he had functioned on his own for so long. He was quite obviously lonely.

“I’m sorry I overreacted,” he whispered.

“It’s fine. It wasn’t all that bad,” she whispered back. 

It really hadn’t been. She had no idea what bad looked like on him. Not yet anyways.

.....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to Galaxyspere347 and iheartloki as well as all my lovely readers and commenters! You guys are keeping me inspired. :)


	8. I’m Looking Through You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lore takes a call and Tilly gets more than one unpleasant surprise.

“I’m looking through you, where did you go,  
I thought I knew you, what did I know

You don’t look different, but you have changed  
I’m looking through you  
You’re not the same.”

**********

Things were strained between them after that. It was like Lore was keenly aware that Tilly had seen him at his most vulnerable and although he had appreciated her compassion after he had been so repulsive, he was still apprehensive around her now. He couldn’t quite find a way to get back to his playful, sexy self. 

It didn’t help matters that Lore had checked his access logs and knew Tilly had been poking her nose into his personal files. It just wasn’t clear what she knew, or now thought she knew about him. It made him second guess her intentions and was left questioning if she was ever really attracted to him, or she was simply playing him for self-preservation.

He had been trying to keep her at a distance and finally decided let her help with the engines. He pretended it was a reward for helping with his shoulder mobility, but he knew his engines were trash and trying to fix them would be no picnic.

“So I’ve finished patching up the impulse engine, but without some new parts that’s as good as it’s gonna get,” Tilly told him. “But at least we won’t blow up if you try to use them.”

She frowned as she realized that he was back to wearing that hideous, villainous cloak of his. Plus, he was in one of those faraway places again. Staring off at nothing.

“Hey Lore, did you hear what I said?”

He nodded and tapped his index finger on the console. “Yeah, Red. My ship’s a piece of shit being held together by spit and a prayer. I got it.”

That was when she realized that he wasn’t spacing out, but staring at a blinking light on the dash that was indicating an incoming message.

“Who is it?” she asked as she stared along with him at the light. “I thought the comms were still on the fritz?”

“It’s an encrypted sub-space channel I use in emergencies,” he told her flatly.

Tilly bit the inside of her cheek. Not only had he up not actually answered her question, but he was now admitting that he could have sent an encrypted message to Discovery directly at any time without being picked up by just any other ship.

“Who is it, though?” she prodded, trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice.

“I have two guesses and you need to make yourself scarce for either of them,” Lore replied and he was not kidding around. “Why don’t you wait for me in the bedroom?”

“Oh, like I should hide?” she scoffed, offended that he would keep her a secret from his underworld connections. Then she gave it some thought and decided that he was right and she didn’t want his morally crooked cronies to know about her either.

“I’m gonna hide,” she added before leaning down and giving him a peck on the cheek. It felt so natural a gesture now and she really should have been worried about that too.

She ducked down the ramp and out of sight, but stayed close enough to hear whatever was about to be said. Her best guess was that Lore had ties to the Chain. She had never asked and didn’t really want to know. 

Lore steadied himself. He leaned back in his chair and propped his feet up on the console; wanting to look like he wasn’t busy, or concerned in the least about who was calling him.

He keyed in his code not wanting to say it aloud in case Tilly was listening. A holographic projection jumped to life in front of him and Lore visibly grinned.

“Where is she?” came the hardened female tones over the comm.

“Nice to see you too, Oona. How am I, you ask? Oh, I get by,” said Lore in an attempt to mock the woman’s lack of consideration. Obviously they were familiar with one another.

“Enough, Lore,” sniped the woman. “Word is that a female Starfleet ensign has gone missing and was suspected as last seen with a very tall, very aggressive entity in a dark cloak. Ring any bells?”

Tilly kept her head down not wanting this Oona person to know she was there, but she was already dying to see her face. So she lifted herself on her tiptoes from the lower part of the ramp and caught a glimpse. 

The projection was petit with wavy auburn hair done in an old fashioned nineteen-forties do. She had remarkably dark eyes, so dark they may have been black. Oona was quite obviously female and boy did she look pissed at Lore. Not that this was surprising.

“Oh, sure. Of course you instantly think of me. Thanks for that,” Lore snarked, offended. “I didn’t even know that Starfleet still existed. I thought it went out with the Burn.”

“Please do not act dumb. I know all of your tells and I can see right through you. And if it was you who abducted the missing officer, I only want to help you get her back to her people.”

“Oh, you want to help me? I haven’t heard from you in months and now here you are decrypting my impossible to break secure line just to reach out and let me know that you care about my wellbeing.”

Oona folded her arms across her chest and rolled her eyes at him. “Stop being so difficult.”

“I caught that eye roll missy. I think you’re regressing.”

“And I think you are back to your old pathological liar ways.”

Tilly had to stifle a laugh. They way they were arguing sounded like a couple of siblings. Or worse, like this Oona was his one of his daughters. The sobering thought made her stop laughing and listen intently to the rest of their conversation.

“Don’t you worry about me. I’m fine,” Lore assured her. Then he paused and narrowed his eyes. “Wait. Who told you that there was an ensign missing? You have no more love for Starfleet than I do.”

Oona’s image pursed her lips and she visibly looked away from him.

“Great. That’s fucking fantastic,” he lamented dramatically. This mission to save him from himself had his brother’s name written all over it. “Another ingrate I haven’t talked to in fucking forever!”

“Stop swearing so loudly,” she begged.

“Or what? Your saintly uncle might hear me? Goodbye, Oona,” he went to shut off the connection but she said something to make him hesitate.

“Papa, please. You cannot keep her prisoner. We can take her home and keep you out of it. And if she is already dead...we can still try to help you.”

“Dead? Is that what you think of me, little girl?” he asked full of distain. “Tell Data I can clean up my own messes. I honestly expected more from you. Goodbye.”

Tilly’s heart was in her throat. It sounded as though Lore had a history of abducting women and disposing of them when he was finished playing with them. 

Her mind was reeling and she didn’t noticed that Lore was suddenly directly beside her. She startled and shrieked with fear. He covered her mouth and pressed her body against the wall.

“I suppose you heard all of that even after I asked you to go hide in the bedroom,” he said with a seriousness that made her hear-rate pick up even faster. “Calm down, Red. I’m not going to murder you.”

Slowly, he removed his hand from her face and she tried to steady herself. “You lied about being able to contact Discovery,” she whispered. “You could have called them covertly at any time. You never intended on letting me go did you?” 

Lore’s expression hardened and he refused to answer her. Tilly was all but convinced that she was never going to see her friends again, so she kept going with no regard to her safety.

“Who was that? Was she your kid? I thought you said that you had a family a super long time ago; how can she be your kid? She looks like she’s my age,” she ranted, losing her shit.

Lore inhaled sharply and punched the wall beside her head, making her jump and scream. Even though he was not physically restraining her, Tilly was pinned in place by his piercing amber glare and was too petrified to run away.

“Oona is an android. She is almost as old as I am,” he said tersely. “Not that I should tell you. Not that it is any of your damned business.”

It made a sort of sense now, what he had told her about his daughter being different and very intelligent for her age. 

“And your other girl?” She thought of the brown haired toddler standing with her mother, smiling.

“Is dead. Happy?” he snapped harshly. “Does knowing all my little secrets make you feel more in control of your otherwise free fall into terror?”

Tilly stared to cry. She was terrified. She had let herself believe the fairytale that he was not the monster he used to be. That he had honestly rescued her from a dangerous, life-threatening situation. But now she knew the truth. He WAS the life-threatening situation and there was no romance to found here.

He walked away from her then and she slid down to the slanted floor. As she sat there trying to get a hold of herself she could hear Fred rumble up beside her and start making a musical series of soft tones. It was almost like a lullaby meant to calm her; she couldn’t believe that this small robot had such an emotional intelligence. 

Tilly looked down at Fred and smiled through her tears. She wondered if the bot was prone to trying to calm Lore down when he was upset. As she began to give the idea more thought she heard another confusing sound. It was the chirp of the comm relay. Lore was talking to someone.

She wiped her eyes with the backs of her hands and made her way back up the ramp. She peaked over the landing and saw that Oona was on the screen this time.

“I do not understand...” said Oona. “Why did you suddenly decide to come clean?”

“Because she heard what you said and she hates me now. I can’t stand to see her look at me like that,” he confessed.

“Regardless, I believe that you have made the right choice.”

“You would,” Lore muttered under his breath.

“We will rendezvous with your location in sixteen hours,” Oona informed him.

“I figured you were close, but that’s closer than I was expecting.”

“Is that a problem? Do you feel that you require more time?”

Lore scoffed and shook his head. “Nope. Come get her. The sooner the better.”

When the comm closed the android turned around to find his captive standing a few feet behind him.

“That’s it? You’re handing me over to someone else?” Tilly asked with a measure of fear still in her voice.

He didn’t answer her; he couldn’t even look at her.

“Don’t you get tired of being so angry? Of hating the entire universe all the time?” she implored, trying to get him to see reason.

He finally met her eyes, but there was no affection to be found.

“Look Tilly,” Lore said coldly, catching her notice. He had never called her only ‘Tilly’ before now. “Just stay the fuck away from me until they get here. Do you think you can manage that?”

Before she could form a reply he had walked past her and descended the ramp. A few minutes later she could hear him crashing around somewhere below her. He sounded like he was taking out his anger on something and she prayed it wasn’t the engine room.

......

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don’t worry things will get better. This is the first glimpse at our other characters. More to come.


	9. Hide Your Love Away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just as Lore and Tilly are about to part ways their ship comes under attack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a bit longer to move the story along. Hope it is still enjoyable. Happy reading!

“Here I stand head in hand  
Turn my face to the wall  
If she’s gone I can’t go on  
Feelin’ two-foot small.”

**********

Sixteen hours was a long time to wait. Tilly decided to wash her uniform by hand, she never did find out if there was a laundry unit on board somewhere and now would not be the time ask.

She hung the wet clothing over the shower curtain rail. She kept expecting Lore to suddenly be behind her, but every time she looked over her shoulder she was alone.

A couple hours passed by. She spent them playing cards with Fred and typing on the PADD. Not that it mattered now. He could go to hell for she cared; exposed parts and all.

When her uniform was finally dry. She put it on and tied her hair up in its usual high pony. Without make to apply Tilly was otherwise satisfied that she looked much as she always did. Her reflection making everything more real. The fantasy was over and she needed to concentrate on getting away from Lore and back to her ship.

That was when she noticed that things had gotten quiet. Lore must have worn himself out. She exited the bedroom and headed down to the engine room. She knew he didn’t want to see her, but she couldn’t help but worry about what state he was in. If Oona really was his daughter then she could be upset to learn that Tilly did nothing to stop her father from further damaging himself.

She quietly approached the doorway and peeked inside. He was sitting on the floor with his left hand cradled in his lap. She could see a dark fluid pooling on the floor and staining his pant legs.

“Holy shit, what did you do?” she cried, forgetting his warning and rushing to his side.

“It’s nothing,” he muttered as he pulled away from her.

She went over to an open tool kit and found something she could use to cauterize the cut tubing and stop any more fluid from draining out of his body. She surmised that he probably needed it to function.

Lore watched in stunned silence as she sprang into action and stopped the ‘bleeding’, but then his eye caught on her uniform and he had to look away again.

“What else did you damage?” she asked with concern.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said coldly. “I know you’re only reacting as an engineer, pissed that I undid in a matter minutes what took you hours to fix.”

“Fuck you!” she snapped, offended that he could think so little of her now. “I want to help you. How stupid of me to give a shit!”

“You don’t care about me,” he answered back. “You see me as the monster I am, now. I saw the fear in your eyes. Do you have any idea what it does to a person to have someone they care about look at them like that?”

It was Tilly’s turn for a moment of stunned silence. A little voice inside of her needed to know if he realized what he had just said.

“You care about me?” she asked. Her tone wasn’t snarky, but genuinely curious. “Did you mean that?”

“Yes,” he confessed quietly.

“Why should I believe you?”

“You have no reason to. But I do,” he told her firmly.

“If you really cared about me you would have stayed on that colony and made sure I got back to my friends. People who genuinely care about other people don’t steal them away from their lives without permission.”

“Maybe you needed stealing. Did you ever think of that? When was the last time you ever let yourself go? Huh? When were you last free to do and be whoever or whatever you wanted?”

“Lore, your argument is ineffectual. I joined Starfleet with the knowledge that my life and my actions were part of a larger machine,” she explained. “We all function as our best selves, but also as one team and one entity; otherwise it’s chaos and everyone dies.”

“Maybe I was wrong about you,” he said with remorse as he got himself off the floor. 

He was holding his injured hand protectively against his body and she could tell that it was not working properly. It spurred her anger to flare that he could be so stubborn as to refuse her help.

“Oh yeah? Wrong about which part?” she asked, less than kindly. “That I secretly wanted to run away with you, or that I was just like your dead wife? Either one is fucking delusional.”

Lore’s entire posture changed. He was instantly back to being frighteningly rigid and balled his working hand into a fist. Even if he cared about her, he still looked as though he had murder on his mind and she really wished to take back what she had said.

“You are nothing like my wife!” he spat as he glared at her. “And don’t you ever suggest that you are!”

Tilly thought he was going to pick her up and throw her out an airlock, but he turned and stomped out of the room. She looked around herself and took a few steadying breaths. The place was a disaster. He was right about destroying all her work (and his) in a matter of moments. They were definitely going to need new parts now.

Suddenly, the ship rumbled and she thought the engine was going to explode as sure as she was standing there; but then it shook again and she could tell that it had nothing to do with the engine. The thing was definitely dead.

Tilly ran up the ramp to find Lore cursing and banging on the command console.

“What’s happening?” she asked sheepishly, her voice quivering.

“Someone is firing on us,” he snapped.

Duh, she knew that. “Who is firing on us?”

A hail started chirping and Lore whipped around to look her in the eyes. “Find Fred and bring it here, now,” he told her sharply.

Tilly nodded and took off, calling the mechanoid’s name like she was calling a dog. She found him hiding under the bed. It was one of the first places she looked. If she was a small, defenceless robot she would be hiding under the bed too. 

She coaxed Fred out and picked it up. Then she snagged the PADD she had been working on earlier and tucked it into her uniform front. If she knew of anything else valuable she would have grabbed it too.

Tilly came back to Lore’s side with Fred in her arms. The thing was beeping and she could feel its little wheels tickling through her sleeves as it tried to get away from her; presumable to hide again.

The ship shook and they heard a startlingly loud bang. “I’m going to transport us to safety,” Lore explained. “Hopefully we can hide in the caves of this planetoid until Oona gets here in a few hours.”

Tilly didn’t question him. If his weapons systems were anything like his engine room then she already knew they were useless. The fact that he was dead in the water was probably why he was giving her to someone else to deliver to Starfleet instead of sucking it up and contacting them himself. He would have no means of escape and end up arrested. Though right now, being arrested was the least of his worries.

Lore put his less functional arm around her and then tapped the tech on his shoulder. Tilly had never seen it before and decided that he must have put it in place while she had been searching for Fred.

In an instant they were on the other side of the planetoid and exposed to the elements. It was windy as heck and quite cold. There did seem to be just enough atmosphere for Tilly to breath, thankfully. Lore helped her to climb down into a crevasse that led into a deeper caves. They were almost out of sight when Lore’s ship exploded in a huge ball of fire.

“Damn it, I loved that ship,” complained Lore. 

“What are the chances that they think you’ve been destroyed?” Tilly wondered as she shifted her hold on Fred.

“Hopefully they do, or at least the minerals in these rock formations will keep them guessing for a while,” he replied. 

He didn’t sound all that convinced and it scared her. As they got deeper into the caves Lore had Fred light itself up. The android didn’t need help to see in the dark, but he knew Tilly would.

“Who was that?” she finally asked. They were huddled close so she wouldn’t get hypothermic. There was less windchill inside the caverns, but it was still damp and much colder than it had been on the ship.

“Some asshole from the Chain. They must have detected the communication between me and Oona,” he grumbled. “Are you warm enough?”

She nodded and hugged Fred like a security blanket, or beloved stuffed toy. Lore pulled her into his lap and turned up his internal temperature regulator. He was worried that she could be stressed, or in shock from so much happening all at once. She didn’t fight him, but let him do what he wanted. She found his desire to keep her safe oddly renew her faith in him. If he hated her it stood to reason that he would have left her to die.

“Shit,” she cursed under her breath. Something dawned on her and she wasn’t sure if she liked it.

“What?” Lore asked with worry. “What’s wrong now?”

“You’re in love with me,” she said plainly. “No one fucks and fights like you do unless they’re hopeless in it.”

“Shit,” he repeated, echoing her sentiment.

“Wait, you knew this already,” she sputtered. “Why are you cursing?”

“No, I didn’t,” he said in earnest. “Obsessed, yes. Determined to keep you, yes. Enjoying your company even when you were a challenge, sure. But did I actually believe I was in love? Hell no.”

“Oh...then maybe you aren’t,” she bargained.

“Yeah, maybe not,” he muttered. 

He sounded quite unsure of himself. Lore hated when his damned human emotions got one over on him. The anger and resulting violence he was used to, but falling in love when he was meant to be satisfying his lust and other perverse needs was not appreciated.

But despite his resistance Tilly could feel Lore rest his head against the back of hers. That was when she knew that he wasn’t just holding her to keep her warm, he was hugging her close, as though she was his security blanket.

“Hey Red, thank you for finding Fred,” he whispered into the darkness.

“Thank you, Lore, for telling Oona about me. If you hadn’t we would both be in big trouble right now.”

Lore shrugged off the compliment. It really hadn’t been his idea to give her up. He was more worried that he would kill her in a murderous rage if he didn’t make sure someone would hold him accountable.

“She should be here in a little over seven hours,” he told her. “Or any minute. Sometimes she lies so I won’t anticipate her sneaking up on me.”

Tilly chuckled at the thought of his daughter having to lie about her expected arrival time just so that she could ensure she would catch her father before he could make a mad dash. 

Then she started to cry. It was so out of the blue that it surprised her. It must have been her anxiety and fear breaking through now that some of the adrenaline was wearing off. She recovered herself quickly. Having Lore’s arms so tightly around her helped more than she wanted to admit.

“It’ll be fine. Even though that other ship shouldn’t be able to detect your life signs, Oona is far more clever,” Lore reassured her. “She’ll detect the wreckage and find us. Don’t worry.”

Tilly wanted to believe him, but she wasn’t as sure as he was. She did notice, however, that he didn’t mention anything her about weeping. It was nice that he didn’t want to make her feel any more self-conscious than she already did.

“Why don’t you tell a story or something,” he prompted in an attempt to distract her.

“What, like about me?”

“Sure,” he nudged.

She shifted her position so that she was holding onto him instead of just sitting with her back to him. He seemed to enjoy her openness to accept him and probably thought she was giving him another chance. Really she was just desperate not to freeze to death.

“I don’t really know what to tell you,” she muttered. “I guess last year was pretty eventful. I found out that my captain was really from the mirror universe and plotted to take Discovery back with him so he could overthrow the Terran Emperor and consequently rule the universe together with his lover. By his lover, I mean my best friend, Michael Burnham—which is factually wrong because Lorca, our captain, was actually infatuated with his mirror-verse Burnham, not ours. Although, I suppose he convinced himself that they were one in the same and that was how she ended up on Discovery in the first place...”

Even Lore, an android, was finding it difficult to keep up with her convoluted story. “Are you pulling my leg? This is not a true story,” he pressed with skepticism.

“Yes it is,” she said defensively. “I had to pretend to be my other self too. She was nasty and evil. I think maybe you would have liked her. “

“Nah, I like this you just fine,” he told her adamantly.

“Do you know what they called her, the other me? Captain ‘Killy’. So dumb.”

Lore snorted. “That is the stupidest nickname.”

“I know, right?”

“It does sort of imply that Mirror you is some sort of mass murderer, though,” he added thoughtfully.

“Um, yeah. How else does a woman in her early twenties become captain of her own Terran ship? It’s awful to think that we’re the same person.”

“You’re not. Trust me,” he said kindly.

She thought he was going to lean down and kiss her then. Their earlier spat forgotten. But suddenly she felt Lore pull away a little; more alert than just a moment ago.

“Is someone coming?” she whispered.

He was concentrating hard and didn’t reply right away. When he gave her a curt nod, Tilly asked Fred to turn off his lights. They sat in complete darkness for a few beats and then she heard it too. There was a distinct crunching of feet on the gravelled ground of the cave. Her heart started to beat very quickly as Lore made them stand and moved her behind him. She imagined that he could still see despite the inky blackness surrounding them.

“Fred, turn your light back up,” Lore said after another impossibly long moment.

The robot did as it was asked and Tilly, who was still holding Fred close to her body, squinted at the sudden brightness. When she could finally focus she saw who was there. It was another Lore. Well not exactly, but he looked quite similar. This version had no visible damage, or scaring and all of his hair. It was slicked back in a neat style.

“Hello Lore,” said his doppelgänger. “And hello Ensign Sylvia Tilly.”

“Red, meet Data, my brother,” said Lore with mild agitation.

Tilly gave Lore some side-eye before responding politely. “Hello, Data. I hope you’re here to rescue us.”

“I am,” Data replied, smiling slightly. 

If Tilly didn’t know any better she would think that he was being rather smug about having to come to Lore’s aid. 

“It will be much easier to get a lock on all three of you if you leave the caves,” he instructed.

Data started in his path back the way he came and Tilly followed. But then she noticed that Lore hadn’t moved.

“What’s wrong?” she whispered to him.

“Nothing,” Lore grumbled. 

That one word was loaded with so much angst that Tilly decided to let it go. Clearly, there was some unspoken thing going on between Lore and his brother and now was not the time to pry deeper into his personal life.

Tilly was pleasantly surprised when Lore came to her side and took her hand with his good one so that he could help her over the rough terrain. Despite the unfortunate circumstance of losing his ship, Tilly was somewhat glad that Lore would be joining her on her journey home. She never liked being in the company of strangers.

......

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter has Lore’s family :)


	10. We Can Work It Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Data is based on my own AU where he did not install the emotions chip but was able to develop his own emotions. And yes at times he does have a petty attitude towards Lore, but he usually means well. Also, I had to include Geordi. I couldn’t see Data drifting around for centuries without his soulmate. We’ll learn why Lore didn’t do the same eventually.

“Life is very short and there’s no time  
For fussy and fighting, my friend  
I have always thought that it’s a crime  
So, I will ask you once again  
Try to to see it my way  
Only time will tell if I am right or I am wrong.”

**********

When they beamed up to Data’s ship they were met by Oona and another man that Tilly didn’t know yet. He looked a little younger than middle-aged, his striking steel coloured eyes stood out against his dark skin. Tilly thought he was quite handsome, but just like the androids there was something eerily artificial about him. Perhaps he was an android as well.

“Oh good, you found them,” said the man, the relief palatable in his voice. “Welcome aboard our ship the ‘Conan Doyle’. My name is Geordi and this is Oona,” he said kindly introducing himself and the young woman beside him. “Eva is around here somewhere, but she’s rather shy. Please don’t hold it against her.”

Tilly smirked at the name of their ship as she shook Geordi’s hand. She gave him a questioning look when she noted that it did not feel right.

“I’m a hard-light hologram,” he said with a lighthearted chuckle, as though to answer her unspoken question. 

“Oh, neat,” said Tilly. “So is anyone here...you know, organic?” She didn’t want to say ‘alive’ thinking it could be offensive.

“Not on this ship,” said Oona with mild annoyance. “I can take Fred from you. I would like to check him over and make sure he is undamaged.”

Tilly looked down at the robot in her arms and reluctantly handed it over to the shorter woman; well female android. She noticed that Oona had used the pronoun ‘he’ unlike her father who always referenced Fred as ‘it’.

“I must say I’m impressed that you took him with you,” commented Oona to her father, a cold edge to her words.

“Always the pessimist,” scoffed Lore.

“Only when it comes to you, Papa,” she mocked.

Lore narrowed his eyes at his daughter. That was when he noticed Geordi watching him. “What?”

“Your left hand seems to not be working. Want me to have a look at it?” The offer was so sincere that Lore felt like a complete asshole for damaging himself in the place.

“No, Geordi. Thank you, though.”

“Are you certain, Lore?” pressed Data. “Geordi could make quick work of the repair. It looks as though you could use several repairs.” It hadn’t escaped his notice how unkept his brother had let his android body get.

Lore tried to keep his temper. Data was not being mean spirited like his daughter, even if his comment had come across as condescending. He genuinely wanted to help him. If only Lore wasn’t so stubborn about accepting people’s help.

“No, it’s fine. Just point me to where I can do the work myself,” replied Lore.

Tilly didn’t even bother to try to offer her services to him. She was fairly certain he would snap at her. Data led his brother away down a hallway. Which left Tilly alone with Geordi. She could not understand why Lore chose to isolate himself from these good people. He made it seem as though they were as rotten and untrustworthy as he was. But that was just is ornery nature she supposed.

The kind man gave her a grin and offered to show her to a spare room where she could take some time to decompress before contacting her ship.

“Unless you want to send word to Discovery right away?” 

Actually she did. Not because she was ready to go home just yet. There were far too many unanswered questions here. It was rather because she knew her people would be worried about her.

Geordi showed her to the command center of the ship and opened a secure channel.

They waited for what felt like an eternity for a response.

“This is Captain Saru of Discovery. Please identify yourselves,” came a familiar voice. 

Tilly was so happy she could cry. “Saru, it’s me! It’s Ensign Tilly!” she exclaimed.

The Kelpien startled. “Ensign Tilly, what a relief,” he said with excitement of his own. Even though the image on the viewer was only of Saru they could hear the other Bridge officers comment and laugh with the good news.

“We thought we had lost you,” he continued. “Burnham found your badge, but no other evidence to go by.”

“Except rumours of the dark cloaked figure,” Michael interjected as she entered the frame. “Oh Tilly, I was so afraid we would never see you again.”

Tilly was smiling, overjoyed at seeing her crew mates. “Yeah, well. You aren’t rid of me yet. I got picked up by some good people and we can rendezvous with you.”

“Sadly, we have an assignment that very much needs our attention,” explained Saru. “However, I will contact you again on this channel as soon as we can take the time to retrieve you. It is so good to know that you are safe. Who can we thank?”

Geordi waved his hands when Tilly looked to him for an answer. “Don’t look at me,” he said humbly.

“Technically it was the cloaked man who saved me. His name is Lore. He isn’t the criminal he once was. He is actually quite noble.” She hoped that the bent truth about Lore would go over well enough. “As for the ship we’re on now, it’s not his. We ran into some trouble and a good friend of his came to our aid. I can tell you more after I return to Discovery.”

“Alright. We must go for now, but expect to hear back in a day or so,” said Saru. “You are certain you will be alright until then?” He hated leaving her now that she was found, but there was another pressing mission they needed to get back to. They had already wasted some of their time searching for her to no avail.

“I will be fine. In fact, I think I’ll go get some rest,” she told her captain. She had only been missing for a few days and she was pretty sure she could manage one more. Especially now that it wasn’t just her and Lore.

......

Meanwhile, Lore was cursing and muttering to himself when his brother approached him. Data could see that Lore was attempting to repair the dysfunctional neural pathways in his left wrist.

“I could assist you, brother,” he said with kindness. “You do not always have to struggle alone.”

“Holy fuck,” grumbled Lore with frustration. “Are you talking about my hand, or are you spouting off metaphorically about my whole damned life? Either way, I don’t need your help.”

“Suit yourself,” said Data with a frown. “You always were stubborn.”

“Me?” questioned the other android. Lore stopped fiddling with his repair and focused on his brother. “You were the one who wouldn’t tell my wife I was alive. You were the jerk who tried to steal my family from me!”

“You are speaking of something that happened centuries ago,” Data told him with a sigh of exasperation. “I thought you were over all of that?”

“Hey when you exist for as long as we have you ruminate on all kinds of shit you let go of already. Then you get angry and eventually you get over it again. But then something reminds me again and I hate you all over.”

“As I recall you were not particularly angry at the time.”

“Yeah, because I came out on top and you got distracted by Geordi and Jayden,” Lore reminded him.

It was Data’s turn to look melancholy now and Lore almost felt bad for bringing up Jayden.

“Is everything alright in here?” asked Geordi from the open doorway.

“Not really, but my brother does try his best to make everyone happy,” grumbled Lore.

“Okay...well...I wanted to let you know that Ensign Tilly contacted her ship,” added the hard light hologram. “She’ll probably be with us for at least another day, or so...you know if you wanted to talk to her...about anything.”

“Thank you, Geordi,” said Data. “Lore, will you speak to her?”

“Why? What’s left to say? Sorry I kidnapped you?” he joshed. “She knows that already.”

“I saw how you were holding each other in the cave before you became aware of my presence,” said his brother.

“So what? She’s a lifer like Geordi was. And since she’s only like twenty-two it’ll be a lifetime before she retires...if she gets the chance that is.”

Data looked to Geordi with an undeniable sadness in his eyes. The hologram took his hand supportively. “I know love is difficult, brother, but you have been alone for far too long.”

“I’m not alone. I have Fred to keep me company,” Lore noted dismissively.

Geordi had a PADD tucked under his arm. “Tilly wanted me to give this to you,” he said as he held it out to Lore. “She said she came up with a formula to help you replicate a bioplast similar to the human grade one you have covering your torso. You know, in case you ever want to make yourself look decent again instead of like a mechanical villain out of a horror movie. Her words not mine.”

Lore took the PADD and tossed it on the work bench without looking at it. “Whatever,” he said, pretending that he was unimpressed that she would go through the trouble.

“Come on, Data,” said Geordi as he tugged on his partner’s hand. “Let’s leave him to it.”

......

Tilly was finding it difficult to fall asleep, being in another new place. Not to mention that it was freaking her out a little that she had slept better with Lore holding her than she had in ages. She decided that maybe she had suffered from a concussion and would blame her head injury for all her bad decisions.

She lay on her back with her eyes closed, so desperate to get some rest that she didn’t even care if she snored. She was barely dozing when she heard something in the hallway, just outside her door. She thought maybe it was Fred making the rounds and for some reason she thought it would be good to see the robot.

In the meantime, it took Lore three times as long as it would have taken with someone’s assistance, but he got his hand and forearm working again. 

He trotted towards the crew quarters, but stopped short of Tilly’s assigned room. A part of him really wanted to show off his accomplishment to her, but another part of him remembered that they were done with each other. So what if she wanted to help him look human again? And what happened in the caves was a matter of survival. It didn’t change anything between them.

His mood shifted as he stared at the closed door. Then, as if sensing his presence, it opened. A startled looking Tilly was standing there, staring at him. 

“Hi,” she said quietly.

“Hey,” he replied.

“Did you fix your hand?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you hear I’m going home?”

“Yep.”

This was going great so far. At least he hadn’t yelled or thrown anything—yet.

“Okay, well did you need me?” she asked as she watched him for any clue of what had brought him to her door.

“Nope.”

“Okay, bye.”

“Bye,” he repeated giving her a stupid dorky wave with his now operational left hand.

She smiled because she caught that he was showing her how well it worked without actually meaning to. The next moment she was gone and he was staring blankly at her closed door again.

“Fuck,” he breathed, full of self loathing. He continued down the hall.

Another moment later Tilly stuck her head out and called after him.

“I can’t sleep,” she said with an unguarded honesty that seemed to beckon him to join her.

Lore didn’t say anything. He turned around, walked back towards her and entered her room. She helped him take off his soiled outer clothes, still covered in grime from the caves. 

She really hadn’t intended to seduce him, but their continued close contact stirred something in her, like she was missing him too much already. Lore could tell that she was fighting herself, but he didn’t know why. Not until she held his face with both hands and kissed him longingly.

“I scared you,” he muttered, dumbfounded by her tenderness.

She took his admission as a form of apology. “You saved my life...twice,” she reminded him. Her way of telling him she cared too.

“I can’t be trusted,” he murmured looking at his hands and remembering how he had torn his own engine room apart in a fit of rage.

“Neither can I,” she sighed before kissing him again.

He still pulled away from her. “This will only make it harder for me when you go,” he said openly.

“Would you rather not hold me one last time and regret it?”

He looked her in the eye and couldn’t deny that she was right; he would regret it. So when he started to remove the rest of his clothing, she followed his example. And when moved on top of her, to claim her, she moved with him, spreading her legs and inviting him in. 

Physically nothing had changed, but everything felt different. This wasn’t sex for the fun of it. This was two lovers saying goodbye. And for the first time Tilly didn’t want to. She held onto him and peppered his face with kisses. It was the most missionary and normal sex they had to date, but it was no less good and somehow meant more.

Lore stayed with her afterwards and held her while she fell asleep. He was sure that he would miss this part of being near her almost more than the sex.

......


	11. Let it Be

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tilly hangs out in the ship’s canteen and interacts with others. It’s a pretty lame summary, but I do like this section a lot.

**********

“And when the broken hearted people in the world agree  
There will be an answer, let it be  
For though they may be parted, there is still a chance that they will see  
There will be an answer, let it be”

**********

Tilly was grinning from ear to ear as she got herself a coffee from the replicator; her good mood and good night’s sleep all thanks to Lore. She was amazed they even had a food replicator, but it stood to reason that she was not the only organic passenger they had ever had.

When she turned around with her steaming mug, she was startled to find Oona standing directly behind her. The petit android glared at her as the much taller woman cursed while hot coffee spilt over the rim of her mug and onto her hand. 

Oona tossed her a cloth that seemed to come out of thin air. Then she watched Tilly with her arms crossed in front of her chest as she cleaned up her spill. For some reason the look of judgement on Oona’s face reminded Tilly of Lore and not in a good way.

“Hi, Oona, sorry. I didn’t see you there,” said Tilly as submissively as possible.

“Yeah, I gathered,” she answered rather rudely.

“Is something wrong?” Tilly seemed to be asking that a lot lately.

“No. I just want to be sure that when you go back to your ship and return to your life that you will ignore any future attempt that Lore makes to contact you.”

Tilly really couldn’t get a read on Oona. One minute she was admitting that Lore was her father and the next she was calling him by name like some sort of casual acquaintance.

“I think he’s made it pretty clear that he won’t do that,” Tilly told her bluntly. Then she took a sip of her coffee, forgetting how hot it was. She grimaced but refused to spit it out.

“Hmm, I think the safety settings for amicable drink temps must be off,” said Oona after observing her guest’s less than subtle reaction. “Sorry about that.”

“Are you? No offence, but you don’t act like you like me very much.”

“Why should that offend me?” wondered the android. “I do not like you. I have never pretended to like you. You are a nuisance. You have distracted my father and cost him his ship. Now he will be stuck with us for some time and that is a problem.”

“Geez, don’t candy coat it, or anything,” Tilly remarked sarcastically. “Look, I didn’t try to get Lore to like me. He’s nuts. If you want to blame someone, blame him.”

“I do, constantly,” replied Oona. “That is why you must ignore him.”

“You don’t want us to be together, I got it. While it’s very sweet that you care so much about whom your father chooses to spend his time with, I also feel like it’s none of your business.”

“But you do not intend to spend more time with him. That is also a problem and that makes this my business.”

Tilly could tell that this was about to get ugly and she tried to remove herself as gracefully as possible. 

“Wait...first you tell me to ignore him and now you’re annoyed that I plan to do just that? Look, I’m sorry you feel so responsible for him, but Lore can make his own choices.” 

Once she had said her piece she tried to leave the area, but Oona grabbed her arm and kept her from leaving. Clearly she had more to say.

“I usually do stay out of his business. In fact, deniability is the best defence when you are related to someone like him. However, he usually finds company with hookers and whores. Sex is transactional and impersonal. You are not impersonal and if he could, he would keep you and I do not understand in the least why he has chosen you.”

That was it. Tilly was done playing nice. If this micro bitch wanted a piece of her she was going to tear her a new one.

“Why? Because I’m not like your mommy? Grow up. It’s been forever. Lore is allowed to form new relationships.”

Oona started to laugh in her face. “Oh please. You are nothing like my mother. You are a loud, flamboyant ogre. My mother was soft and kind and sensitive.”

“I honestly don’t give a fuck what she was like,” Tilly snapped coldly. “I’m not here to play house. Lore kidnapped me and I probably won’t ever speak to him again. So stop your sniping and nasty comments. They don’t mean anything to me.”

“And you mean nothing to me,” added Oona, lowering her voice. “You are simply a disposable organic.”

“Hey!”

Both women startled and turned around to see Lore standing in the doorway. 

“What the fuck?” he asked crassly.

“I could ask you the same, Papa,” Oona said with feigned sweetness. She didn’t wait for a reaction, but pushed past him and stormed off.

“God that girl is a piece of work,” said Tilly. “One minute she demeans you and the next she’s calling you papa.”

Lore looked upset still and she thought maybe he was mad because of what she had said. “I didn’t mean to disrespect your departed wife...I was just mad at Oona.”

“What?” he commented as tried to follow her train of thought. “Oh, I don’t care about what you said. She had no right to speak to you like that. I just get irked when she does that...like you said. When she calls me ‘papa’ that way. She was always more Data’s daughter than mine. Her sister, Zoe...she was the one who used to call me ‘papa’ and meant it.”

“So when Oona says it, it’s a dig?”

“Yep, most of the time.”

“That’s messed up.”

“She is my daughter and Soongs are generally prone to do some pretty emotionally manipulative things. Except Data. He is seriously a saint. Although, he did have a few questionable situations in his youth.”

As they chatted another woman entered the canteen. She had a dark bob and cocoa coloured skin, like Geordi. However, she had yellow eyes like Lore and Data. She smiled demurely and came to stand with them.

“Hello,” she said softly. “My name is Eva. I apologize for not making your acquaintance earlier.”

Tilly smiled kindly at the newcomer and put down her mug before offering her hand. “Hi, I’m Sylvia Tilly.”

Instead of accepting her handshake, Eva entered Tilly’s personal space and hugged her.

“Sorry, someone should have warned you, Eva is a hugger,” said Lore. 

“Yeah, I gathered,” said Tilly playfully as she returned the affectionate hug.

When the dark haired woman moved away again she looked to Lore. “Fred is doing well. It is good to see him again.”

“Fred doesn’t have a gender, Eva,” Lore corrected.

“I think Fred is a ‘he’. He is always so sweet to myself and Oona,” she explained. 

“Ah, Fred has a thing for the ladies,” said Tilly with a wink. “I get it.”

“No...Fred is a sexless robot that likes to eat dirt,” insisted Lore.

Eva giggled at him. Then she got up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “I missed you too, Uncle Lore. Do not be jealous of my affections for Fred.”

Lore bit his tongue. He knew it was senseless to keep arguing against her. Eva gave Tilly a wave of her hand and left them alone again.

“So...what’s Eva story? She seems darling.”

Lore bounced up to sit on the edge of the counter. “She is rather child-like,” he said with a sigh. “She’s the first functional android built since the end of the synth wars. Data made her as a tribute to his first daughter, Lal. It’s so sickeningly admirable the way she chose to combine the aesthetics of both her parents.”

Tilly had to think over what he was telling her for a few moments. Then her brain figured it out. “Oh, you mean that Data and Geordi are her parents? They created her together? Aw, that is so cute.”

“Androids aren’t meant to be cute,” he grumbled.

“No? You prefer the humanity destroying, killing machine versions?”

Lore replied by giving her one of his middle fingers.

“Nice. Super classy,” she said sardonically. “I can really see why you ran screaming from your family, they are totally opposite to you. They’re all so loving and inclusive—well maybe not Oona.”

“Oona is delightful when I’m not around,” he assured her. “We just bring out the worst in each other.”

“I still don’t understand why it seemed like she was contacting you to try and help you without telling your brother, but then it was Data who came down to the surface to find us.”

“I assume she told him everything after I confessed to holding you against your will. Data would have insisted on taking over after that. You can take the droid out of Starfleet, but you can’t take Starfleet out of the droid.”

Tilly made a mental note to look Data up in the Starfleet database when she got back to Discovery. “You weren’t exactly holding me against my will,” she told him. “I mean, you were going to let me go...eventually, right?”

He shrugged, but didn’t say anything. 

Then she decided to join him and moved her mug so that she could sit on the counter. She even leaned her head on his shoulder. Lore couldn’t quite believe that she was still allowing herself to be close to him. Her ship would be there soon to collect her and this was only making it harder for him to see her go. That sick little instinct inside of him wanted to lock her away and keep her forever. It was definitely not healthy. 

“I wish I had time to help you restore your body before I go.”

“I had a look at your formulas,” he said with a grin. “Not bad. You might actually have something.”

She chuckled and knocked her shoulder against his. They were like two old friends having a laugh. That was until he starting looking at her with those sad eyes and she leaned in and kissed him.

They heard someone clear their throat and they moved apart. It was Data.

“I have just gotten word from Discovery. They are going to be delayed by another day,” he said before ducking out again to give them their privacy.

Tilly slid off the counter, but hesitated a moment when Lore didn’t follow her.

“Are you disappointed?” he asked quietly as he watched her intently.

“What? No...I’m sure they have their reasons,” she replied casually. He could tell she was upset. 

“This ship is warp capable,” Lore told her as he came to stand beside her and put his arms around her supportively. “I’ll go ask Geordi to set a course. We can rendezvous with them. You know, if they aren’t in the middle of some death defying battle.”

Tilly chuckled and kissed him for being so kind. “Maybe you can explain to me why Geordi is a hologram afterwards,” she said as she rubbed noses with him. 

“Oh, that’s easy,” he said playfully. “Geordi made a pact with my brother that he would never leave him. So on the day he died, Data activated the hologram. They’d been collecting his memories and synaptic patterns for years. It’s basically an ingenious clone.”

“But why a hologram and not an android?” she pressed.

“Androids were basically outlawed at the time and besides, you met Eva. Geordi could have ended up basic, or worse, a nut job like me.”

“What about Oona? Who built her?”

Lore kissed her and took her hand. “No one built her, but I suppose you could say she was created by the late Dr. Soong.”

“I don’t know what that means,” Tilly grumbled. “How can an android be created but not built?”

“That’s a great riddle,” he hummed with approval, completely avoiding her question. “I’ll remember that one.”

“Lore, come on! What does that mean?” she complained as she followed him out of the canteen.

.......

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little more hanky panky to follow.


	12. All you Need is Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tilly and Lore sneak away one last time. Then Tilly has an odd conversation with Data. Finally, it’s time to go home.

“There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done  
Nothing you can sing that can’t be sung  
Nothing you can say, but you can learn how to play the game  
It’s easy.”

***********

Lore twirled Tilly around like they were dancing, but there was no music. She had seen him angry, sullen and full of lust, but this...this was new. He was being downright giddy and it was freaking her out a little.

“What is going on with you?” she asked, trying not to laugh at him.

“I’m happy,” he said as placed a hand on each of her hips and swung her to a rhythm she couldn’t hear.

“Well, stop it, it’s weird,” she grumbled.

He stuck his tongue out at her and spun her around again. Now she was getting dizzy.

She put up her hands and motioned for him stop. “Seriously, enough,” she whined.

He was about to ignore her when she looked a little nauseated and he backed off.

“Sorry, didn’t think a seasoned officer like you would be so prone to motion sickness,” he said.

“Shaking and being thrown about from weapons fire or space turbulence is one thing, but spinning on the spot is another,” she said in her own defence.

Lore chuckled before gently tucking a finger under her chin and lifting her face to his. “Can I kiss you, or do you still feel sick?”

Tilly smiled weakly. She honestly did feel queasy, but she kissed him anyways; her nausea soon forgotten. She knew he was just distracting her, but she decided she didn’t mind.

He had taken her into the workroom where he had fixed his hand. They were supposed to be looking over her formulas. Instead, Lore fancied them as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. At least that was before they started making out.

When their kissing became more passionate Lore backed Tilly up against the workbench. Then he lifted her up to perch on it. Before too long he was helping her out of her uniform and his cloak was falling to the floor.

“I hate that thing,” she muttered in his ear when she heard it flop to the ground. She was nibbling at his ear and he really had no idea what she was talking about. Especially now that she was naked except for that lovely lace bra of hers. He was tracing its outline with one elegant finger.

It did cross Tilly’s mind that maybe this was an inappropriate place to be doing what they were doing, but she figured they would be quick and she would be leaving soon. So she wrapped her legs around Lore’s waist and he very ineloquently screwed her roughly where anyone could walk in on them. 

“Oh god, I don’t want this to end,” she panted as he picked up his pace. “You should come with me,” she huffed as she tried to get him to look into her eyes.

“Um, sure,” he said, though rather unsure why she would suddenly get so romantic and want to orgasm at the same moment. “Just tell me when you’re about to climax. Oh what I am saying? I’ll know,” he said with a dastardly smirk. 

“No, you goon. Come home with me,” she said breathlessly with annoyance. Then she was gone, her body slammed with waves of wonderful thrills and her brain in its happy place.

Lore leaned into her, the ecstasy running through his matrix muddied by his lover’s honest plea to share his life with her. To say that this notion had never occurred to him was an understatement. They didn’t belonged together, or to each other really. 

Tilly came back to her senses and smiled, resting her heavy head on his shoulder. Lore pushed her back from him, claiming that he didn’t want her long tendrils of hair to get caught in the exposed workings of his arm.

“But will you come with to live with me on Discovery?” she asked and sighed softly.

He gave her sad smile and shook his head, unable to speak the words to reject her heartfelt offer.

A moment later he was handing her back the parts of her uniform and getting himself dressed. A few moments after that he abandoned her in the empty room.

.......

Tilly was feeling raw and emotionally confused. So when she passed by a room she had yet to explore she couldn’t help but want to feed her curiosity. 

She found Data sitting at a desk in room filled with books, real ones, on every wall. Suddenly the ship’s name held more meaning. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle must be a favoured author.

Geordi was beside the android and Tilly looked away as the holographic man dipped down and gave Data a kiss. It seemed as though he was capable of maintaining a relationship even if his brother wasn’t.

As Geordi passed her in the doorway he gave her a kind pat on the shoulder. Data was watching them, a small smile pulling at the corners of his mouth.

“Hello, Ensign Tilly,” he greeted her.

The young woman entered the room, titled her head and waved him off. “This isn’t a Starfleet vessel, Data. You don’t have to address me by my rank.”

“Old habits,” he noted as he put down the book he had been reading. “I served in Starfleet twice. A few hundred years apart, mind you,” he explained.

“It is an amazing opportunity and stellar institution.”

“Most of the time,” Data interjected. “I have witnessed moments of Federation history that were not as hopeful and inclusive.”

Tilly frowned. She had a pretty good idea what he could be referring to. “That must have been hard for you. To live through a time in history where an entire society turned on synthetic life forms such as yourself.”

“I gave so much of my existence to humanity and desired nothing more than to be human,” he confessed openly. “I came to discover that I had already achieved my goals with my found family and my relationship with Geordi.”

“That is so lovely. You and Geordi seem so normal and happy,” she said with admiration. “What happened, if you don’t mind my asking, between you and Lore?”

The android raised his brows and gave her an inquisitive look. “To which instance are you referring?” he asked.

“Right, ‘cause there are bound to be multiple issues over so many years,” she muttered, reconsidering her question. “Fine, how about originally?”

“Lore informs that we were originally very close,” he told her. “There was a disturbing incident that misled our parents to deactivate him. It was only decades later that we learned the truth and that Lore was innocent in the matter. Unfortunately, I no longer have any of my early memory files, though I was able to speak with our mother and one other very important participant in our early years together.”

She was going to have to find out more about this supposed mother; but immediately her curiosity was piqued by that other unnamed person.

“Important participant?” she pressed.

“Yes, Lore’s wife, Lee,” Data explained. “She had the unique experience of travelling back to that time period in our lives. Then she returned to her primary time and resumed her life. Sadly, I am told that her disappearance led us all to believe that Lore had murdered her.”

Tilly was lost, as expected. She wondered for a brief moment if Lore had always been so emotionally bipolar and therefore it was easy to believe he was capable of such a crime of passion as to murder his own wife. 

Instead of debating this aspect, however, she chose to focus on the woman in question. “Lee was a time traveller?” she asked with importance.

“Not as such. Not anymore. Her story is complicated and quite misguided,” he said with a frown.

“She sounds like Lore,” Tilly offered frankly.

“Indeed, I believe that was why they were so well suited. Though, I did not believe so at first.”

“How well did you know her?”

“Quite well, though also not as well as I had believed. We first met when Lee was fourteen. Years later we were involved for a time and even then she kept things from me.”

“Wait...you were involved with Lore’s wife?” To say that Tilly was shocked was an understatement.

“Yes, in fact until I realized my true affections for Geordi I had wanted to marry her myself.”

“Was this before she had a baby with your brother, or after?”

Data was not sure where she had learned about a child and decided that she must have guessed from knowing that Oona was Lore’s daughter. Though the word baby seemed to worry him.

“Did Lore tell you about Zoe?”

Tilly blanked momentarily. She had never heard the girl’s name before now, but could tell he was speaking of the brunette from the photos. “Not really. He only mentioned having two daughters. I presumed one was human while the other was an android. Which I don’t understand because why not make Zoe into a hologram?”

Data’s gaze became unfocused and then he simply looked away from her. “I believe it would be best to discuss any further inquiries with my brother.”

“I would, but he gets so quiet about it,” she told him. “I thought maybe you could tell me so I wouldn’t inadvertently do, or say the wrong things around him.”

Data fixed her with a very superior stare, like one Lorca or Stamets used to give her before she was taken seriously. “I do not believe that is a very good idea. Besides, you will be leaving his company shortly.”

“I’m sorry if I misled you, but I have one last question which I hope you won’t deny me,” she all but begged. He sighed and waited to hear her out.

“What was her full name and rank? Lee, I mean?” she requested.

“You want to look her up in your archives?” She nodded and he sighed again. “You will not find her. Her mother removed her and any mention of her and her daughters in order to keep them all safe.”

“What? I don’t understand,” Tilly said at a loss. 

“I will tell you that her mother was our chief medical officer when I served on the Enterprise; otherwise I cannot in good conscience share more details of her identity.”

“But she’s dead...like seriously, for multiple generations.”

“Ensign, that is all I will tell you,” said the android.

Tilly decided that was his way of asking her to leave. So she did, glancing behind her to see him pick up his book. It was then that she realized he was reading ‘Peter Pan’. It was an odd choice, but maybe Eva had recommended it.

......

When they finally arrived in same sector as Discovery and received word that it was safe, all things considered, Tilly prepared herself mentally to return to her ship.

This vessel and its inhabitants were still quite a mystery to her, but she had been away for far too long already and they didn’t seem ready to trust her with all their secrets. Maybe one day she could visit and learn more about them.

After saying her farewells to Data and Geordi, Tilly received a hug from Eva and a curt nod from Oona. Then she was left alone with Lore.

“Goodbye, Lore,” she whispered as though she didn’t want to say the words.

“Goodbye, Red,” he replied just as reluctantly.

“Will you come visit me sometime?” she asked, avoiding the idea of entwining their lives in a more permanent fashion.

“Nah. There’s no sense pretending there’s something more here than there is,” he told her, trying to sound easy. 

She couldn’t help but feel rejected; despite his nonchalant attitude she needed to feel like this weird relationship had meant more than he was letting on. She told herself he was trying to lessen the blow for himself. Then she came in close and kissed his cheek. 

“Okay, bye,” she muttered.

Lore watched her back away and stand ready to beam over. For a beat he was too numb to say, or do anything else. He knew he should never see her again. He liked her too much. Hell, he loved her even. She deserved to get on with her life.

“Wait,” he blurted stupidly and rushed her. He held her tightly in his arms and kissed her longingly.

Tilly smiled against his lips. “‘Til next time then, whenever that might be? No pressure, of course.”

“Sure,” he conceded. “Maybe someday.” 

“Well, maybe you’ll write, or message. You know without the spyware,” she teased.

“What fun is that?” he jibed in return. 

She giggled and sighed and touched his face. She suddenly felt better about everything. Then he let her go and took a few steps back. The last thing she saw was the sad smile on his Frankenstein face.

It was only when Tilly was back on board Discovery, surrounded by her Bridge crew that she remembered little Fred. She had forgotten to say goodbye to the maintenance robot who had become her friend. 

It was a stupid detail. Fred probably didn’t mind, but Tilly felt awful all of a sudden. As Michael hugged her dear friend, she started to sob into her shoulder.

“We all missed you so much,” said Michael, hoping to lift Tilly’s spirits.

“I know. I missed you too,” Tilly blubbered, her emotional damn broken. “I love all of you so damn much.”

It was true. Discovery was her home and these people were her chosen family. She didn’t need Lore and his centuries of baggage. She was fine with her life just as it was. Besides, they still had a mission to fulfill and duties to be done. The escapism was fun in the short term, but the universe needed them all together—more than any of them realized.

......

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be continued in PART TWO which takes place after the Discovery Season Three finale.
> 
> Not sure if I should just keep on posting here or start a second story. Any thoughts? Thank you all for reading this far! Hope everyone enjoyed it! All the feedback and kudos have been lovely :) Feel free to keep them coming. <3


	13. Dear Prudence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> PART TWO   
> (which takes place after the Discovery Season Three finale.)
> 
> It’s been several months since Tilly has seen or spoken to Lore. Although it is probably for the best, she has been left broken-hearted. Then Lore shows up, but he is not as she remembered him. He is all shiny and new and human-looking. And it she doesn’t trust him at all.

“The sun is up, the sky is blue  
It’s beautiful and so are you  
Dear Prudence won’t you come out to play”

**********

It had been twenty-seven weeks since Sylvia Tilly had said goodbye to Lore and his family of synthetic individuals; which included the eleven weeks since they solved the mystery of the Burn and Commander Burnham had taken down Osyraa. 

Tilly had sent a total of four messages to the ‘Conan Doyle’. At first either Geordi, or Data replied to let her know they had passed her message onto Lore. She only heard back once. Lore was brief and detached and she was left disappointed.

Some weeks later when she sent her final message, feeling like a fool, she was told that Lore had left their ship without any means to communicate with him. It seemed as though Lore had made the choice for both of them and that was the end of that.

Which was fine. Now she could stop obsessively trying to dig up information about Lore and Data’s elusive past. Other than Lore’s outdated list of felony charges and Data’s vague service records there was little to be found. 

Things were busy for Discovery and her crew, but life was looking good. More and more planets were rejoining the Federation and Starfleet was already looking at expanding.

Discovery was currently in charge of delivering the cashes of dilithium crystals to the father reaches of Federation territory. They were finishing up such a delivery when Tilly thought she heard someone call her name. She reflexively looked to her crew mates, but none of them were paying her any attention. So she shrugged it off.

Then she heard it again. Someone distinctly called out ‘Sylvia’. She slowly looked around. She thought a man off to her right looked vaguely like Lore. This wasn’t new. Sometimes she would be thinking of him and start to see his face everywhere and she would blame her paranoia. This time though, was not her imagination.

“Red, I know it’s you,” said a familiar voice, closer than before.

Tilly scrubbed at her eyes and looked at the very human looking man again. It couldn’t possibly be him. However, as he came closer still, her heart flip-flopped in her chest as recognition set in. The human looking man was, without a doubt, Lore.

“Lore?” she asked cautiously as he came to stand directly in front of her, his light blue eyes sparkling, no longer an alien yellow.

“Sylvia?” he teased in return. “Yeah! What do you think?” he added as he did a dramatic twirl on the spot so she could see him from all angles. 

The truth was he looked fantastic. He was wearing a form fitting jumper that showed off his forearms, allowing her to see that he had in fact been repaired and refitted with a human-like dermal layer and he was no longer a jumble of exposed parts and crude scars.

In another reality she would have jumped him right there and then. But she had responsibilities and he was a criminal. Plus, she couldn’t stop the bitterness of his abandonment from rising like bile in her throat.

“I want to know what you’re doing here,” she told him bluntly.

Lore frowned and ran a hand through his thick, fully restored, dark brown hair. “I heard the conquering Starfleet heroes were delivering dilithium to this hub and thought I would check to see if you were in the landing party. I thought that maybe you would be happier to see me.”

“Uh-huh? Translation, you came to steal our dilithium,” she rebutted, unimpressed.

“What!? No! I was here following up a lead on a new ship...well new to me. It’s old and needs a lot of work,” he explained. “My family is nice, but they are too nice for me to stay living with them forever.”

“Okay. Say I believe you. What’s with your upgrade? Why did you finally let your brother restore you?”

Lore wanted to tell her the truth, that he had done it for her. He hoped that one day their paths would cross again and he wanted to be worthy of her attention. But now, seeing how annoyed she was, he decided to make something up.

“Oh you know, that black cloak was getting cumbersome and you would be amazed at how much easier interactions have gotten now that I’m handsome again.”

“Go figure,” she muttered, “You must be beating them off with a stick.”

“Huh?” he wasn’t quite following.

“Women. They must be falling all over themselves to be with you.”

“Sure. I guess,” he remarked, not realizing she was baiting him.

“You make me sick, Lore,” she said with distain. “Just stay away from me and my crew and we won’t have a problem.”

“Whoa! Wait. What just happened?” Lore asked with alarm. He quickly began following behind her when she walked away. “Are you mad at me because your little Discovery friends might see me, or are you mad because you actually think I’m here to steal from you?”

Tilly stopped abruptly and he almost slammed into her back. If she was being honest she was angry because he had never tried to contact her, not once since they parted ways.

“Exactly. Both reasons. So back off and keep your distance,” she said instead.

Paul Stamets came up to them and gave Lore a wary once over. “Everything okay here, Ensign Tilly?”

“Who’s this? Your new boyfriend?” Lore snarked rudely.

Stamets and Tilly exchanged a look and Tilly shook off the comment. “No. Stamets is not my boyfriend.”

“Yeah, I think my partner might object,” added Stamets. Then for some reason, curiosity mostly, the man extended his hand. “Lieutenant Commander Paul Stamets.”

The human looking android took the proffered hand and gave it a firm shake. “Lore Soong,” he said brashly.

“Ooh, you’re the guy,” said Stamets as the realization dawned on him. 

The fair haired man smirked with a sort of appreciation for Lore’s good looks. It also happened that he had been driving Hugh up the wall with his research into Soong-type androids since Tilly divulged the identities of her saviours.

By now Tilly’s face was bright red from ear tip to ear tip. “Yeah, uh huh, yep. Okay. So are we done here?” she babbled with embarrassment. “Please tell me that we are done here.”

“Yeah, sure. We’re done here,” the commander told her. “Signed, sealed, delivered.”

Lore chuckled at Stamets lyric reference. But his mirth was short lived as the pair started to walk away again. “Hey wait up. I have a request,” he called after them.

Stamets was first to stop and wait for Lore to speak. Tilly growled to herself before rejoining them.

“What?” she asked with a mixture of false kindness and venom.

“I don’t think the ship I was looking at is worth the time and expense of restoring it,” Lore explained.

“So?” she prompted, not really seeing how this was her problem.

“So...I mean, I lost my ship helping to save your life,” he said with a measure of guilt inducing sincerity. “I thought maybe you could return the favour and offer me a lift to the next space port?”

Tilly glanced at Stamets to see his reaction. She was not expecting the broad grin and mischievous twinkle in the man’s eyes. 

“I don’t think that’s a very good idea,” she replied, keeping her voice low.

“Why not?” asked Paul. “It sounds like a reasonable request to me. Also, I would love to pick Lore’s brain about his experience as an artifice life form.”

“Because...because,” she stumbled. She didn’t want to point out the obvious but she felt cornered now. “Because he’s an android with a rap sheet a mile long.”

“Statute of limitations,” said Stamets without missing a beat. “Plus he saved your life, Tilly.”

“Yeah, Tilly,” echoed Lore while batting his eyes at her.

“Look, we have to ask our captain first okay?” she snapped, losing the last of her cool.

“Sure. That Saru guy sounds super chill and understanding,” said Lore, thing of what he recalled from her stories.

“Oh no. Saru is on sabbatical. We serve under Captain Burnham now,” explained Stamets.

Lore had to keep from smiling like an idiot. “Michael Burnham? As in the infamous mutineer, Michael Burnham?”

“Someone knows their history,” said Stamets with enthusiasm. He patted Lore on the back and the two started towards their rendezvous point like a pair of old friends. 

Tilly lingered behind them, cursing to herself. She had never seen Stamets so immediately befriend anyone in the entire time she had known him. It was just her luck that he would choose to take a liking to Lore. She was convinced that the android was planning something devious. There was no way he happened to be there by mere coincidence. With her luck the blame would fall on her shoulders.

“Oh God, just fucking kill me now,” groaned Tilly.

.........

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Made the decision to keep adding on. Hope everyone enjoys the change from Lore’s world to Tilly’s. I thought it would give an interesting new perspective. Cheers!


	14. I’m Looking Through You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lore tries to apologize but loses control momentarily when things don’t go his way.

**********

“I’m looking through you, where did you go  
I thought I knew you, what did I know  
You don’t look different, but you have changed  
I’m looking through you  
You’re not the same”

**********

Tilly stood with her hands behind her back and her face craned up to the ceiling. She was standing next to Lore in her captain’s ready room and the two were hitting it off so far; which made her want to crawl into a Jeffries tube and never come out.

“Wow. Spock’s sister...in the flesh,” beamed Lore. “My brother, Data, admires your brother and his work. I can’t wait to tell him about meeting you.”

“You mean, rub it in his face,” mumbled Tilly, unprofessionally.

“Um, Tilly,” said Burnham. “You okay? You look distracted for some reason.”

Tilly straightened herself and met Burnham’s gaze. “Oh no. Yeah...it’s fine. I’m fine.” 

Of course it wasn’t fine. She was wondering where this charming, delightful person was six months ago when Lore had taken her captive. He was like a completely different person with his thick sexy hair and his handsome freckled, flesh toned face. 

She wondered lustfully what the rest of him looked like now and hated herself for thinking that someone like Michael stood a better chance with a guy like him than she did. At least her friend was already firmly committed to Cleveland Booker and it was highly unlikely that she would be interested. Not that it mattered; she was so done with Lore.

“Well, in that case I was hoping you wouldn’t mind sharing your cabin with Lore,” continued Michael. “He is your special guest and we are rather short on bunks.”

Tilly was sure that her head was milliseconds away from exploding. This was not happening. Michael was still treating the guy like her secret, forbidden lover—like she was doing her bestie a solid by suggesting they room together—and Tilly wanted to scream. 

“Um, yeah. Lore doesn’t really need to sleep all that much anyways,” she replied with civility.

“You’re sure you don’t mind?” questioned Burnham. Unless she was misreading her friend, Tilly didn’t look as happy as she was expecting her to look. “I know things got a little dicey the last time you were alone together. I wouldn’t want to cause any undo emotional harm.”

Tilly wanted to protest, but she had built Lore up so much to all of them and to Starfleet just to ensure that they wouldn’t go after him for his past crimes. So she couldn’t exactly backtrack now. Officially he was a changed man, a hero; but to her mind this was all an act.

Plus she didn’t understand what game Lore was playing. Why disappear for six months without so much as a word only to show up now, out of the blue and hitch a ride? Logically she knew he had decided to stay away and not communicate, but deep down she believed that he loved her and would do anything to be with her again. All she reckoned was that he had better have a very good excuse for his disappearance.

“No, Michael,” Tilly reassured her captain, “It’s fine. Lore can stay with me. I’m hardly in my room anyways.”

“Well, you have some down time now since your team finished early, Number One. Why don’t you show Lore where he’ll be staying for the next few days.”

“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir,” she said formally and then gestured for Lore to come with her. 

Lore of course noticed the reference to her being first officer. He had no idea she held such a prestigious title. She never gave him any indication, but it helped to explain why she gave him up so easily to return to her Starfleet family. They acknowledged and respected her. She probably didn’t need him at all. 

They walked in silence to the turbolift. Then they rode the lift without a word. Even once they were inside the small quarters, neither made a sound.

Tilly sat on her bunk with her hands folded in her lap. Lore mirrored her and sat on the opposite bed; the one that used to belong to Michael.

Her mind was reeling with unanswered questions. Where had he been? Why did he even bother? And more importantly, was he still living in the past and stuck with ghost of his departed wife?

She had done her research when she finally found a few minutes. It turned out Data was right. There was no record of Lore being married and no record of any woman named Lee Soong. 

More frustrating than that was finding out that the long-term CMO of the Enterprise D and E had been a woman named Doctor Beverly Crusher who had had one son. A son, not a daughter named Wesley. 

At first she wondered if the woman had scrubbed out any evidence that she had ever had a daughter, but then she came across some obscure report from a psychologist who had interviewed Data and found him to be involved with a young ensign under his command. A woman, not a man, named Wesley Crusher. It was all too weirdly specific to be a mere misprint.

When she finally found evidence of Ensign Wesley Crusher’s service records she found that he suddenly went MIA after only a few months of service as an ensign. Again, it was all highly suspect. 

Lore decided to break the prolonged silence and speak first, bringing Tilly back to reality. 

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I had no idea how upset my being here would make you.” 

He honestly didn’t have a clue. He supposed it served him right for only thinking of how elated he was to find her again. After all that he had been through over the last several months he just wanted to put it all behind him and be with her. There was so much he wanted to tell her, but couldn’t. It was already difficult to work up the courage without her harping on him.

“No? Did you miss my subtle clues before we came aboard Discovery, or were you too busy kissing Stamets’ ass to notice?”

Lore held her hardened gaze. Only he looked sad, heartbroken even.

“I wanted to contact you,” he said at last. “I just didn’t think you wanted me to.”

“Six months,” she reminded him.

“I know,” he admitted with a measure of shame.

“Six months, Lore,” she repeated angrily. 

“I know,” he said again.

They sat in another long stretch of uncomfortable silence. 

“How is your family?” Tilly asked, not knowing what else to say.

“As good natured and annoyingly wonderful as always,” Lore replied.

“And Fred?”

He hadn’t seen his family, or Fred in such a long time. But if he told her he would also have to explain why.

“He decided to stay with Eva.”

“Oh he did, did he?” she questioned in a teasing manner. Lore always insisted that Fred had no gender.

“Theirs is a forbidden love,” he joked back.

“I’m sorry. That must leave you sort of lonely,” she added sympathetically.

“I suppose I deserve to be alone,” he said without sarcasm. “For what it’s worth, you look good, Red.”

“Thanks. So do you...but you knew that already,” she noted.

“It’s still nice to hear,” he retorted offhandedly.

“So, why don’t you just come out and tell me?” she pressed.

Lore gave her a confused look. There was no way she knew what he was keeping from her. 

“Tell you...what?”

“What the scam is,” she said plainly. “Why you were at that hub when we were.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose and let out an exasperated sigh. He was relieved that she was oblivious, but annoyed that she could think so little of him.

“Sylvia, there is no scam. I was being honest. I just took a chance that you would be there. That’s all.”

It stung that he was still keeping something from her. Even if he was telling the truth something didn’t feel right. So she stood and headed for the door.

“Where are you going? Your captain gave the rest of the day off,” he inquired, hurt by her retreat.

“I just can’t do this right now,” she told him. “Stay here, or in the mess hall, but don’t get into trouble. Can you do that?”

He should have just said yes. He should have let her have some space. But Lore was feeling possessive and he missed her too damn much to let her walk out that door. So he got up, caught her by her arm and flung her onto one of the bunks.

Before Tilly could react Lore was on top of her, pinning her to the mattress and kissing her forcefully. There was an untamed ferociousness to his attack and it frightened her. 

As he ground down into her groin she began hitting him hard in the chest and squeaked to try and get his attention. He easily snatched both of her hands and held them over her head. 

It was getting so that she could barely breathe; he was smothering her with his greedy mouth and tongue and she began hyperventilating through her nose. Slowly she stopped fighting him. 

It took Lore a moment to notice this change. He became alarmed when he realized that she was not willingly surrendering to his whims, but had lost consciousness from his cruel onslaught.

He moved off of her by a fraction to offer her some air. He let go of her wrists and lightly tapped one of her cheeks to try and rouse her. 

“Red?” he whispered, full of confusion and shame. “Sylvia, please wake up. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Tilly eyes slowly fluttered open and she stared up at him. At first she seemed in a daze and delighted that he was so near, but then she recalled how he had attacked her and her whole expression clouded over.

“Please let me go,” she whined in fear.

“I didn’t mean to...I got carried away,” he told her in earnest.

“You’re an android, you shouldn’t be able to get carried away. You knew exactly what you were doing,” she said pained by his betrayal of her trust. “Please get off of me.”

“Yes, Tilly,” he said flatly, like all the air and happiness had left him. He stood up and away from her. The next moment she dashed out of the room.

He flopped down on the mattress after she left and stared at the ceiling. Then he threw a brief hissy fit and flailed his arms and legs in frustration. He couldn’t believe that he had let himself lose control like that. There had to be something wrong with him. Afterwards, he stood up and righted himself, careful to smooth his hair back into place. 

“You’re a fucking monster,” he grumbled to himself. 

It was then that he realized his antics had opened up an old wound in his leg and he decided to see about finding someone to fix it for him. It was more than he deserved, but he desperately needed a distraction.

......


	15. In My Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lore meets a few of Discovery’s residents and gets invited to dinner with the captain.

“Though I know I'll never lose affection  
For people and things that went before  
I know I'll often stop and think about them  
In my life I love you more”

**********

Lore decided to go explore the ship. The last Starfleet vessel he had spent time on was the Enterprise-E. The Discovery was much smaller in scale and in its number of crew members. The Enterprise was a city with over a thousand inhabitants. The Discover had fewer than a hundred occupants. It was more manageable, but harder to get lost, or go unnoticed.

He made his way down the corridors and found himself in Sickbay. He recognized the sterile environment and bright lighting. A man dressed in a slightly different uniform with a white stripe stopped him as he entered.

“Hello, my name is Doctor Hugh Culber. Can I help you?” he asked politely.

“Um, yeah...I think so, maybe,” stumbled Lore. “Nice to meet you, by the way. I’m Lore.”

“I thought you might be,” said the doctor. “Although I wasn’t expecting someone so human in appearance.”

“I had an upgrade,” said Lore with a chuckle. 

Culber grinned. “Well it suits you. If you need assistance I could contact someone in engineering for you.”

Lore smiled and shook his head. “No, I think you might be the best person to help, actually,” he said as they walked over to one of the medical tables. He lifted his pant leg to reveal a nasty gash in his shin. It looked old and it wasn’t bleeding.

“Oh my,” commented Culber, “Does it hurt?”

“Not especially. The synthetic tissue should knit itself back together eventually, but it seems to be taking longer than I expected. Nothing is damaged underneath and the cut is fairly clean. I really just need one of your tissue regenerators to speed it up.”

“You think an organic tissue regenerator should work?” The doctor was intrigued. He had never seen a synthetic person, or such lifelike bioplast before. Except of course Airiam, but she was a cyborg without the benefit of any such aesthetic camouflage.

“It should,” said Lore. “It was designed to mimic human flesh.”

“Sure.” 

Hugh retrieved one of his units and had Lore sit on the table with his injured leg in front of him. He made sure to sterilize it before starting the healing application. The wound started to close as it would for any other patient. The doctor couldn’t help it and let out a giddy little laugh.

“Look at that,” said Hugh, pleased with the result. “Paul is going to be so mad that I didn’t call him up here to witness this himself. He is obsessed with you. Well not you personally, more like your design.”

Lore was not offended at all by Culber’s rambling. He could tell right away that this must be the partner that Stamets had mentioned. He felt a streak of jealousy run through him then. He thought how nice it must be for them to live on a ship that was not designed to accommodate spouses and families, but that they could still serve together and share their lives.

He remembered his wife struggling with her duties while trying to raise their first daughter. He had wanted to ask the doctor if he had any advice on how to get Tilly to forgive him, but the memory of Lee made him hold back.

The unit finished its cycle and his leg was healed, so there was nothing else he needed. “Thank you, Doctor. I’ll try not to injure it again.”

Lore was on his way out when Culber stopped him. “You know, Lore, Captain Burnham was talking about having a dinner for some of her Bridge crew tonight. Maybe Tilly would like to bring you. You can meet some of her friends.”

It was such a sweet gesture that he wanted to say yes. “I don’t know that Tilly is very happy that I’m here. I think I messed up going dark for too long. She is really rather angry with me.”

“Well, Tilly isn’t the sort of person to hold a grudge,” said Culber. “I’m sure she’ll forgive you.”

“Let’s hope that you’re right.”

.......

As Lore wandered through the corridor he passed a pair of young people. They were oblivious to him, chatting and laughing. It didn’t bother him to go unnoticed, but he was left confused. Not only was he sure that the Discovery was not meant to have children and families on board, but one of the pair looked strikingly familiar. Their facial structure strongly like someone from his past.

Lore was contemplating following them when someone tapped him on the shoulder.

“Hey, you’re the robot, right?” came the blunt inquiry.

Lore looked down at the odd scruffy woman before answering. “Um, yes.”

“Oh great, you can talk,” she said. It didn’t sound like she was relieved, more as though it would have been a nuisance if he was dysfunctional. “I thought we were gonna have a robot statue stuck in this cross-section. Safety hazard.”

Lore hadn’t realized he had paused for such a period of time that warrant her concern. “I’m an android, by the way, not a robot,” he corrected, ignoring her lack of compassion.

“Whatever, same difference,” she said with disinterested shrug. “Just don’t come to me if you get all buggy.”

“Perhaps we should be acquainted then,” he said wanting a name so that he could avoid it in the future. “I’m Lore.”

“Yeah, I know,” she grunted rudely. “Name’s Jett Reno. Although the idea of a mechanoid is fascinating I really don’t have the patience for your specialized positronic brain. Got me?”

“Look, Jett, I have been taking care of my own matrix for hundreds of years. So don’t martyr yourself for me.”

“Really? So you’re a self sufficient robot?” Now she sounded intrigued, even if she was still talking down to him.

“Yep.”

“Huh, but how do you know if you’re buggy if your self-diagnostic system stops being reliable? You know and then you end up in an endless cycle of telling yourself that you’re dandy, but factually you’re moments away from disaster?”

Lore’s face fell. He hadn’t really considered this to be a problem since his brother gave him a tune up a couple of months ago. However, he had experienced a few very unfortunate things since then. Things that could have offset his internal systems. Things that could have led to his abusive actions with Tilly earlier.

“I hate to ask, but...presumably you’re an engineer?” Lore wondered with an underlying humility.

“Ugh,” complained Reno. “Fine. One time, robot man. I will hook you up and check your basic system functions.”

“Thank you, seriously,” he said sincerely.

“Don’t thank me yet,” she said as she began to lead him to a turbolift. “I know Starships and have the unique experience of keeping members of my crew alive after our ship crashed. So I know a thing or two about human bodies. I presume you work like a human does?”

“More or less...I’m designed to have neurological pathways and functions like a human,” he explained.

“Cool. Let’s hope nothing’s wrong with you and I don’t need to chance it and accidentally fuck you up,” she said with a mixture of trepidation and excitement that left Lore wondering if he should have spoken to Stamets or Tilly instead. 

.......

It turned out that Reno gave him a clean bill of health. Other than a small jolt when she connected him to their computer mainframe, everything went well. Lore decided that it must be his damned broken heart causing him to be so harsh with his former lover. 

Lore was eager to start making amends and found Tilly in the Mess Hall. She was sitting off in a corner reviewing some reports with a drink in her hand. The place was fairly empty since it was the middle of the afternoon. 

As the android approached she chugged whatever was left in her glass.

“Can we talk if I promise to keep a safe distance?” he asked half-jokingly.

Tilly glared at him. Obviously she was not ready to laugh about what had happened.

“Look, you can report me if you want. You have every right to,” he added more seriously.

“No, I let you do all kinds of kinky shit to me before,” she muttered crassly. “I guess I should have properly informed you that I no longer wanted to continue our sexual relationship.”

“Oh, alright,” he said disheartened by her news. 

“So no more weird sex stuff. Got it?” She wasn’t slurring exactly, but she did seem a little off. Lore supposed she was day drinking.

“Yeah, loud and clear.”

She gestured for him to sit and despite wanting fix his mess and begging her to reconsider her decision, he sat quietly across from her.

“Did you need something?” she prompted.

“I just met Hugh Culber. He’s a good doctor. Great bedside manner,” he said in effort to break the ice. “I also spent some time with Jett Reno. Now, she’s something else. Kind of a disgruntled genius. She reminds me a little of my father.”

Tilly rolled her eyes at him and slammed her PADD on the table. “Are you moving in now? Becoming buddies with all my friends?”

She had good reason to be mad at him, but he was concerned that maybe she was a little drunk. “Were you drinking alcohol?”

“Oh, what? Now you’re gonna judge me? It’s your fault I need to drink.” 

Although he knew she was right, he still hated to see her act so out of character. “It’s the middle of the afternoon,” he reminded her.

“On my afternoon off,” she countered. “I never get an afternoon off.”

“Okay, fine,” he said as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Of course this earned him another eye roll and the addition of a groan. “I don’t understand you,” he said, lowering his voice. “Everyone seems to think you hold me in high regard...but you don’t.”

“So maybe I talked you up too much,” she confided. “I really didn’t want the Federation to waste it’s limited resources reconsidering their stance on synthetic life forms and hunting you down. Turns out maybe I was wrong.”

“I’m sorry about before. You know I would never intentionally abuse you.” he said lowering his voice again.

“What if you did? What if you hadn’t stopped?” she accused coldly.

“But I did. I’m not like that,” he noted the hurt back in his tone like he was the victim.

“Honestly, I have no idea what you’re like,” she shot back defensively.

He still didn’t quite get what her problem was. So maybe she wasn’t madly in love. It still did not quite explain her lack lustre attitude. 

“So because we aren’t hidden away on my junker anymore, I can’t touch you? Would you rather I just pretend we meant nothing to each other?”

“Damn it, Lore,” she hissed. “You should not be here.”

Before Lore could respond Tilly was looking at someone standing behind him. He already knew that it was Stamets.

“Hey, guys. Sorry. I am interrupting something?” Stamets asked with trepidation. It certainly looked like they were arguing.

“No,” said Tilly at the same time that Lore said, “Yes.”

“O..Kay....” said the engineer with considerable misgivings about his decision to try and insert himself into their conversation. “Well, I just wanted to let you know that Captain Burnham has invited a few of the crew to have dinner with her tonight.”

Tilly started giggling. It was probably the alcohol. 

“Sorry, sorry,” she said as she tried to catch herself and recover. “Still so weird, you know? Michael is our captain. I mean...Lore said it best. She’s a mutineer,” she muttered before losing her self-control and snorting loudly.

“Is she drunk?” Stamets asked Lore with obvious concern.

“Nah, she’s just giddy,” Lore told him. “I have that affect on people.”

Tilly regained composure and cleared her throat. “What time is dinner?” she asked rather stoned faced.

“Nineteen hundred,” said Stamets. “And Lore is invited as well.”

“Of course he is,” she mumbled under her breath.

“Sorry, I didn’t catch that,” said her friend.

“That’s so generous,” Tilly told him with a grin, covering herself.

Lore of course heard both versions without any difficulty and he frowned.

“I don’t need to eat,” he said to Stamets, knowing Tilly wanted to keep her distance from him. “I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable.”

“Oh, no. I think you’ll more than make up for your lack of dining with interesting conversation,” the engineer insisted.

“Stamets, just because Adira has Grey now and doesn’t need you as much anymore, doesn’t mean you should use Lore to distract yourself,” Tilly commented rather coldly.

“Who are they?” Lore inquired.

“They are both highly capable individuals that Paul insists on treating like children,” explained Tilly.

“For your information, Adira may seem mature, but they are still a teenager,” Stamets said defensively. “And Grey is just finding his feet as a hologram. Besides, I don’t need a distraction.”

“Oh right, you’re just obsessed with Lore because he’s an android,” Tilly told him with condescension. “Well, you’re welcome to him. Sounds like Culber likes him too.”

“Next you’ll be suggesting we have a threesome,” snarked Lore, showing some of his old bad behaviour. “No offence, but don’t pimp me out to your friends.”

She wanted to slap his face, but settled on slapping both hands down hard on the table.

“What is wrong with you?” she snapped with hurt feelings. “How can you say something so vulgar in front of my superior?”

Lore realized too late that he had embarrassed her. She was just so aggravating, he couldn’t help it.

“I’m sorry,” he muttered. 

As if to punctuate her rejection of him, Tilly rose from her seat and left the mess hall.

“So...you two are really not getting on well at all,” said Stamets as he watched his friend depart.

“Nope. She straight up hates me and probably wishes I was dead.”

“I don’t understand. She always sounded so enamoured by you.”

“Yeah, well. I made the mistake of abandoning her for far too long,” he said with regret. What he didn’t say was that there were extenuating circumstances beyond his control. He also left out the new bit where he almost raped her in her quarters.

“Well, I’m sure she’ll forgive you,” noted Paul with a shrug. Hugh had said the same thing but it left Lore wondering if he truly deserved her forgiveness.

“You’re an engineer, aren’t you?” Lore asked, changing the subject.

“Actually I’m an astromycologist,” Stamets informed him.

That was a new one. “A what?”

“Basically I specialize in spores and how to utilize them to navigate the mycelial network,” he explained.

“So...more of a biologist and astrophysicist then?”

“Not exactly,” said Stamets, suddenly wondering why Lore would be interested. “Why do you ask?”

“I had an interesting encounter with Commander Reno and wondered if there was another engineer on board that I might consult if I need to.”

“Ah, I totally understand. Sadly, I think Reno or Tilly are you best options, though I would love a chance to give you a scan sometime.“ 

Now that didn’t sound propositional at all. “I’ll keep that in mind, thanks,” said Lore.

......

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had to add Jett and who doesn’t love Hugh? Thanks for reading ;)


	16. Blackbird

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The dinner with the captain doesn’t go well. Tilly tries to make amends with Lore, but he continues to hold her at arms length.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers for the end of Season three of Discovery.

“Blackbird singing in the dead of night,  
Take these broken wings and learn to fly,  
All your life  
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.”

**********

The captain’s guests were all gathered around a large table full of many different dishes. Burnham went around the table introducing Lore to everyone present. Lore had already had the pleasure of meeting both Stamets and Culber, but Cleveland Booker was new to him. 

It struck him that maybe this was couple’s dinner, except there was of course one noticeably absent person. Tilly was late, which was not usual. However, Stamets and Lore felt that she probably wasn’t going to show and they should just get started.

“So Lore, are you really nearly a thousand years old?” asked Doctor Culber.

“Nah, more like eight-hundred, give or take a few years,” Lore replied.

“That is still an impressively long life,” commented Stamets. “Do you have a memory capacity to recall so many centuries, or do you rely on an external database to assist with such a tremendous amount of information?”

“I have to confess that there have been several uneventful times in my existence that I have refined down to their most basic elements to save space for the memories that hold more personal value,” the android explained. “But yeah, it’s all in here,” he added as he tapped his temple.

“What would you consider a moment of importance?” asked Burnham, fishing in order to catch a glimpse of his character.

“Well, I don’t know how much Sylvia told all of you, but I would say anything to do with my family, or anyone I would consider a friend. Also any pertinent information that might help me survive.”

“Being a chameleon must be useful,” stated Booker. “No one made it on their own after the Burn without alliances, or very clever self-reliance.”

“Exactly,” affirmed Lore. “I take it you aren’t Starfleet either.”

“Not yet,” replied Booker with a grin.

Stamets, who had assisted Tilly with some of her research, needed to know more about Lore’s allusion to family. “How many times have you taken a partner exactly?”

“Paul,” Culber warned his partner, thinking the question too personal.

“It’s okay,” smoothed Lore. “I’ve only seriously committed to two other women.”

“Other women?” prodded Michael, bemused that he could be referring to his relationship to Tilly.

“Right...” Lore knew right away he may have chosen the wrong words. “I suppose it is rather presumptuous to believe I can resolve my misunderstandings with your Ensign Tilly.”

“So you want to?” questioned Culber. “I mean, you think you might stick around if she asks you to stay?”

“Only with your captain’s permission, of course,” Lore said giving a Burnham a charming smile.

“We can discuss it if it is something Tilly wants,” said Burnham, not wanting to make a hasty decision either way.

There were serval other comments of interest about Lore; his history and his being an android. However, nothing anyone said phased him until Osyraa was mentioned.

“It’s odd, but my brother mentioned a rumour about Osyraa having an android consort for a time,” commented Booker thoughtfully. “That wasn’t you by any chance?”

The room went silent as all eyes landed on Lore. Unfortunately, Tilly chose that exact moment to make her appearance. She muttered an apology and sat down next to Michael, across from Lore. She even began serving herself from the platters before she realized that everyone was eerily quiet.

“I said I was sorry,” Tilly said sincerely as she looked around at the silent, uncomfortable faces.

“It’s not you,” said Lore as she met his gaze. “Booker was just asking if I knew anything about the android that Osyraa was keeping company with.”

“Oh why? Just because you happen to be an android, doesn’t mean that you know everything about every other android in the known universe,” she babbled, missing the guilty look on her former lover’s face.

“He’s not wrong, Tilly,” Lore admitted after a moment of strained silence. “I didn’t exactly have a say in the matter, but who does where Osyraa is—was concerned?”

The young woman put down her cutlery and fixed him with the most pained expression. “That isn’t funny,” she whispered.

“You’re right, it wasn’t,” he replied.

“So...so you have had all this opportunity to tell me about some sordid affair with that power-hungry tyrant and you chose now to come clean?” 

Tilly couldn’t believe what she was hearing. It had taken everything in her just to show her face this evening and then this bomb was dropped in her lap. In front of her friends—her family.

“No, Tilly,” said Booker with insistence. “This is my fault. I never should have asked him such a deeply affecting question unless we were in private. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, Book,” said Michael coming to his rescue. “This is a safe space. We all look out for one another and we know you didn’t mean anything malicious.” 

“I should leave,” suggested Lore as he stood from the table. “I’ve embarrassed you enough for one day. My apologies to everyone. I will remain in my assigned cabin until I can disembark.” 

He stopped at the door added, “Just to clarify, Ensign Tilly and I did not have a love affair. It was a complicated situation and my actions should have no bearing on your opinion of her. As you already know she is a far better person than I ever was.”

“Tilly?” Michael implore once their guest was gone. “Please don’t worry about any of this. Osyraa made a lot of good people do unspeakable things.”

“I know,” she said quietly in response. “Will you please excuse me? I’m suddenly not very hungry.” The ensign got up, abandoning her food and left the room.

“Do you think she’ll go after him and make up?” murmured Paul to Hugh.

“I don’t know. It’s too hard to say,” his partner replied. “I hope so, though. I would really like to examine him some more.”

“And he honestly sounded like he was making plans to stay,” added Stamets.

“Lore was? Huh, do you think we should tell Tilly that?”

“Not sure if it’ll make a difference now. She really seems to want to be rid of him.”

Michael and Booker exchanged a look as they listened to the pair chatter on like usual.

“You should go check on her later,” said Book.

“Definitely,” said Michael, giving him a weak smile.

.......

Lore was in such a state that he wasn’t watching where he was going and he bumped into a small robot in the hallway. It was no more than three and half feet tall and he recognized it as a regulation Starfleet issue repair and maintenance robot known as dot-23s. 

“Sorry,” he apologized, never wanting to disregard another synthetic no matter if it was sentient or not. “I didn’t see you there.”

“We require no amends, however we are concerned and wish to assist,” said the robot.

Lore looked down at the bot and tried to decipher what it meant. “Assist me with what?”

Tilly had caught up to him and she answered. “It can tell that you’re upset,” she informed him.

Lore gave her an apprehensive look. “You mean it’s sentient?” he asked in disbelief.

“Not the robot,” she elaborated, “but the intelligence driving it.” Then she turned to the white and metallic bot. “Thank you, but I can take it from here.”

Tilly led him back to her quarters and sat down on the same bunk with him this time, almost like she was showing him she was on his side.

“I’m sorry I got so mad,” she said calmly. “But you really should have just told me. I mean you went out of your way to find me and I treated you like you didn’t matter to me, so I can see why you were reluctant to divulge such a shitty thing. I was angry...I shouldn’t have been. We did say that it was over...didn’t we?”

“Not exactly, but that was the understanding,” he admitted. “I really didn’t mean to scare you, but I never should have lost control.”

“Maybe that was how Osyraa liked it,” Tilly observed keeping her eyes on the floor.

Lore felt sick. There was no doubt that the Orion woman had given him new parameters of pleasure through pain, but he would be damned if he ever applied them to his lovely Sylvia.

“I can’t tell you how sorry I am,” he said again. “If I have to I will keep apologizing.”

“No, I think you’re being sincere,” she said as she gave him a quick glance and an equally quick grin.

“Thank you,” he gushed. “You have no idea how horrible it was in that fraction of a second when I realized I had literally suffocated you.”

Tilly took his hand and held it tight. She hated being afraid of him and so badly wanted to move past his desperate actions.

“Lore...since we’re coming clean, who was Wesley Crusher to you?”

He startled a little and stared at her with a baffled looked of confusion. “Are you seriously asking me that right now? After finding out what I’ve been through?”

“Oh, you poor thing,” she said kindly, “forget I asked.”

“Why is it so important to you?”

“Because it is to you,” she said with affection. “I saw the photos, I know you kept images of your wife and girls, Lore.”

“This was a mistake. I will do as I said and leave as soon as I’m able.”

“Lore, please stop pulling away from me,” she pleaded.

“Why should I? One day you’ll die too. That’s how nature works.”

“But Data still has Geordi,” she pressed. “That must really eat at you, huh? That your own brother still has his soulmate after all these centuries and what do you have of your wife? A subversive bitch of a daughter.”

“Don’t say that about Oona,” Lore snapped. “She is so much like me. You have no idea how many times my creator almost shut me off and dismantled me because I was misunderstood.”

“I thought you said that Data basically raised her?”

“He did and she still turned out like me,” he stated with frown.

“What about Lee? Didn’t she raise her?”

“Of course she did. Lee was a wonderful mom,” he said without hesitation.

“Then help me to understand,” she said softly.

“Understand what?”

“Why you won’t tell me everything? Why you won’t let me in, Lore.”

“Because I haven’t let anyone in since. I tried a few times but every time it wasn’t right, or it went sideways. Or they turned out to be like Osyraa.”

“Okay. So Lee was one in a million,” she conceded. “So are you. And—not to boast—so am I.”

She grinned and he wanted to give into her, but he just couldn’t.

“I don’t know what I was thinking coming here,” he said with reservation. Then he looked more resolved. “No, I know exactly what I was thinking,” he told her. “I did this—fixed myself up to look like a real man—for you. Then I took a wrong step and ended up under Osyraa’s thumb for weeks. Well, to be completely transparent, it was more like I caught was between her thighs.”

Tilly winced at his choice of phrasing, though she was sure he was not exaggerating. 

“When I got free of her I dusted myself off and resolved to find you like none of it happened. Like it didn’t affect me.”

“But it did, didn’t it? I had the privilege of coming face to face with that monster. She tried to steal Discovery and kill our Bridge crew.”

“Did you witness her death?” he asked with keen interest.

“No, but I did have the honours of devising a plan to thwart her and of ejecting our overloading warp core into her oversized cruiser,” she confided with a hint of pride.

“That is so hot,” he breathed lustfully.

“I’m sorry she had the opportunity to hurt you,” she told him with sympathy.

“Whatever, it wasn’t the first time an Orion woman tried to brainwash me into being her lover.”

Tilly’s expression hardened again. She really wished he would stop eluding to things that she knew he had no intention of explaining to her.

She wanted to continue her efforts to get him to open up, but the chime rang on her door. It was Michael and she decided to step into the hallway. No sense inviting more chaos into an already confusing conversation.

“How is it going?” asked Michael with heartfelt worry.

“I honestly have no idea. He explained how much he wanted to find me, but continues to put up walls and push me away.”

Michael could see how much anguish her friend was experiencing. “Please come to me if there is anything I can do to help. I really don’t think Lore should leave Discovery until he finds a measure of peace.”

“I agree,” said Tilly. “I don’t want his resentment to ferment over time so that he becomes the next great force of destruction we need to overcome. He has a good heart buried somewhere under all that pompous facade he puts on.”

“I trust your judgement. I just hope it isn’t too late.”

“Me too.”

......


	17. Get Back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lore gets a surprise no one saw coming and later finally reveals some of his complicated family history to Tilly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay folks. This part tackles Lore’s past as told in ‘Lore and Lee’. Call me out of it gets too confusing. Or too boring. It’s dense. I promise there will be more fun times coming soon ;)

Sweet Loretta Modern thought she was a woman   
But she was another man   
All the girls around her said she's got it comin'   
But she gets it while she can 

Get back, get back (yeah)  
Get back to where you once belonged 

**********

Back inside the cabin Lore was rubbing his temples with his eyes shut, trying to calm down. He was feeling disheartened. He was an android and it stood to reason that he should be able to fall back on learned patterns of behaviour where taking a lover was concerned. 

Then he reckoned that perhaps this was the real issue. Nothing had been easy, or normal with Lee. Every step had incurred an argument. Every important marker in their relationship had a shadow of doubt, or fear.

“She suits you. I like her,” said a familiar, feminine voice; a voice Lore hadn’t heard outside his head in hundreds of years. He thought maybe he had been mistaken. There was no way that those words had been spoken aloud.

Lore opened his eyes and looked around the room. He gaped in utter shock when he spotted a young woman leaning against the closed door. She looked just like the day he had met her; pixy cut hair, wearing that midnight blue dress. There was no doubt—it was Lee.

“You’re not here. You’re not real,” Lore said in a panic. He stood up and took a step towards her, but then stopped himself from getting any closer. “It must be the stress I’ve been under.”

“Am I upsetting you, love?” Lee asked with concern. “I thought you would be happy to see me?”

“Don’t do that,” he sputtered, “Don’t—don’t call me ‘love’ and be all wonderful. You’re a figment of my damaged matrix.”

“Is that what you think? Oh, that is unsettling. You should ask Data to run a diagnostic on your perception programme for you,” she said.

“I can’t. He’s not here,” he said with frustration.

She looked confused for a moment. “Who is here? Geordi? Robin? Jayden? That boy was exceptional. Like father, like son,” Lee rambled, finishing with a lighthearted chuckle.

“Stop, Lee, please,” he begged. “You are dead and so are Jayden and Robin. Great, now I’m explaining things to myself as though you were really here.”

“I am here,” she said firmly. “Why do you keep saying that I’m not?”

As Lore struggled to answer her, the door suddenly slid open and knocked Lee off balance. When she tipped over Tilly caught her by the elbow and kept her from falling. Lore gasped in utter disbelief. It was one thing for his mind to play tricks on him, but it was something entirely different if she was solid enough to be touched.

“You..you..you...” sputtered Lore as he rudely pointed at the two women.

“Lore what the hell is wrong with you?” exclaimed Tilly as she grew concerned that he was incapable of forming a complete thought.

“You touched her!” he exclaimed.

“Yeah?” she said calmly. Then Tilly and Lee locked eyes. “Who is she, ‘cause she weirdly looks like your wife?” Then Tilly went pale. “Oh shit, she looks just like your fucking wife!”

“Lee Soong,” Lee said sweetly, extending her hand. Then she nodded at Lore. “I’m Lore’s better half.” She was acting so calmly, as though Tilly wasn’t swearing and yelling.

Tilly stared at the shorter woman. “Excuse me? You’re...you...you are are openly admitting that you’re Lore’s dead wife?”

“Dead? Am I dead, Lore?” she asked rather unfazed by the terminology. “Darling how did I die exactly? Maybe you’re mistaken.”

Lore was sitting on the bed with his head in his hands. “This is psychotic. I never should have let Data share his dream program with me. That must be what this is. I’m dreaming and this will all go away when I wake up.”

Lee came over to him and put her arm around his back. She began rubbing soft circles like the way they always did with each other. “Lore, are you alright? How long ago did I die?”

“Centuries,” he blurted. He was starting to crack up. So was Tilly. This was too exceptionally bizarre. 

“Computer,” called Tilly into the air, “Is there a holographic projection occurring in the quarters of Ensign Sylvia Tilly?”

“Affirmative,” chirped the computer. 

“What? How?” said Lore.

“Do you want to discontinue the program?” Tilly asked him with a worried expression on her face.

“You’re not real?” he asked the projection of Lee. 

She shook her head. “I don’t know. It sounds like maybe I’m not. Maybe the computer was able to form a simulation of me from your memory files.”

“What are you talking about? I never interfaced with the Discovery computer.” Even as the words left his mouth he realized that he had when Reno ran her scan. 

“Not the Discovery computer...it’s a secondary computer,” Tilly told him, followed by a sharp exhale.

Tilly did not want to explain about the ancient sphere data they had taken on. Not now and not to him. She recalled the dot23 in the hallway earlier and wondered if it decided this was a good way to interact with him, though she didn’t really know how or why.

Lore didn’t want Lee to go away, not really. But she wasn’t really real. So he nodded.

“Computer, please terminate the unauthorized hard light projection in these quarters,” Tilly commanded. 

Lee disappeared in an instant and Lore started crying, his grief could not be contained.

Tilly came to sit next to him and pulled him close to hold him in her arms. He didn’t fight her, he was far too upset.

When Lore finally calmed somewhat, he listen as Tilly spent a long time explaining about the ship being refitted to help Grey Tal get around the ship without always relying on his personal hard light projection unit. Lore simply sat in silence listening and nodding from time to time.

By the end he looked as though he understood, but something was deeply troubling him.

“What is it? Please just tell me what’s on your mind,” said Tilly.

“It’s so fitting that Lee would appear as a hard light projection,” he muttered with bitterness. “In her original iteration, before she messed with our timeline, I was resurrected as a hologram.”

“You mean to say that there was a timeline where you were dead?” she prodded.

“For good reason,” he said darkly. “I was evil. Things I did were unforgivable.”

“And Lee just...told you about them one day? Like the two of you ran out things to talk about and she was all ‘hey honey do you want to hear about the complete horror you used to be’?”

Lore scoffed and shook his head. “No.”

Tilly sighed. She could tell that he was not open to sharing as per usual. Lore could tell that she had had enough and was ready to walk away again. So he tried to explain.

“When we first met...I mean when I first met her on Omicron Theta,” he said, hoping to give Tilly enough to placate her. “She was terrified of me because of something some man did to her.” He paused to sigh before continuing. “Turned out the man who hurt her was me.”

“I wish I understood what you were talking about, but I really have no clue,” Tilly told him, trying to make him see her dilemma.

“Technically Lee’s first meeting with me was long before mine. That’s how time works...it’s all loopy and frustrating to grasp what happened when and in what order.”

“Data mentioned that she was a time traveller,” she offered.

“No...Wesley Crusher was a time traveller, among other things,” he clarified. “God I hate that smug, meddling little asshole.”

“Wesley was Lee’s brother?”

“No, Red. Lee was once a part of Wesley. He discarded her like a heap of old clothing, or a child outgrowing it’s toys...or if you like, a snake shedding its skin.”

“What?” 

She so didn’t get it. But she had seen the mirror-verse and travelled unimaginable distances dozens of times via Spore Drive, so she was determined to understand. 

“So...you had a violent, volatile relationship with the son of the Enterprise’s CMO and somehow that kid split into two people and the feminine half landed on your doorstep in an alternate timeline, but you had no idea who she was, or how she got there?”

“Exactly,” he said notable relief that she was finally getting it.

“Wow...that’s just...wow,” she babbled.

“More importantly, because Lee befriended me and eventually became my lover I didn’t descend into becoming a rage fuelled mass-murderer.”

“Oh that’s nice,” she said with a forced smile. 

Tilly was clearly in way over her head. No wonder everyone was so keen on Lee. She was a damned saint; an angel sent from the heavens to stop Lore from becoming a killing machine. How delightful for the entire universe. She could see now why he never wanted to tell her about their life together. Of course Lore had chosen to be alone. How could anyone ever come close to his saintly dead wife?

“You think this all a bunch of malarkey?” he asked sharply, doubting her sincerity.

“No...no...I think that you were in a very deep seeded relationship that was so extremely important to your personal sanity that I am super surprised you didn’t start killing when she did die.”

“Full confession,” he said with a wince, “I did join the synth army after she died.”

“Okay, well that tracks...So you started killing people. That’s awful.”

“That was not my full intention. I joined to help our cause. Our numbers were dwindling and they needed a strong leader,” he explained. “I was not in it to senselessly murder organics. Lee would never have wanted that.”

“Sure...sure...”

“We are talking about seven hundred years ago,” Lore said in his own defence.

“Sure,” Tilly said again.

“See this is why I didn’t want to get into my history. This is why we should have remained a fling,” he said angrily standing and moving away from her. “But you had to get all sentimental and invite me to live with you. I didn’t want to. I knew things would turn sour the moment you knew the truth.”

“Why isn’t Lee a hologram like Geordi? You obviously had the technology to make it happen and the memory files to create her.”

“See, that’s another long story,” he said adamantly.

“Then bullet point it for me,” she demanded.

Lore sat down again and took a moment to gather his thoughts.

“Our daughters grew up on and off with Geordi’s son, Jayden,” he said plainly. “Oona more so because she needed help understanding how to be a child. Not just behave as one, but the psychology of developing her social skills and emotional intelligence. The two were practically inseparable for a time, like twins.”

Tilly could tell he was doing his best to keep it simple, but it was difficult. “By the time the three of them were in their teens Jayden started to gravitate more towards my older daughter, Zoe. By the time they were both accepted to Starfleet Academy they were in a relationship.”

“Oh shit, I can already see where this is going,” she murmured, careful not to interrupt him.

“Right, Oona was pissed. She cut all ties to the family for awhile; but her sister entirely, believing she had stolen her best friend from her. They never spoke again. It upset their mother most of all, but it was no one’s fault. In fact, it was almost expected given the relationships of their parents.”

Tilly could tell that there was more to know, but left it for now and continued to listened.

“Zoe and Jayden had two children, a son and a daughter. Oona never bothered to know either of them. And when Zoe died unexpectedly at forty-six, Oona hadn’t spoken to her sister in twenty-five years, nor did she come to her funeral.”

“Not even to comfort Jayden?”

“Nope. The long story short of why Lee did not condone a hologram using her synaptic patterns was because by the time she passed away she still hadn’t resolved her strained relationship with Oona. She blamed herself for so much, things that she had no control over. She was tired and felt she had lived long enough. 

“Yes it bothers me that Geordi kept his promise to be by Data’s side as long as he exists. But that’s how life is sometimes. We take the good with the bad and remember what we choose to and forget the rest.”

“Unless you’re an android with a flawless memory,” Tilly said with pity.

“I miss her every damned day and I curse that other half of hers who decided to fuck with us. But it’s all in the past. I will never know anyone like Lee, or Zoe again.”

“Well, Lore,” she said as she came to sit by his side again. “I am only one person and although I have been known to feel attraction to both men and women I have no intention of splitting in two.”

“You promise?”

“Totally,” she assured him. “So...one last nagging question.”

“Go for it,” he huffed.

“How DID you end up with two daughters? I mean...you said Oona wasn’t built and Zoe was human...so like how did that work?”

Lore chuckled and rolled his eyes. “My insane father created two batches of experimental synthetic procreative matter. One way back on Omicron Theta and the other as an old miser waiting to meet with Data again.”

“Let me guess, the first was intended for you and the second you stole from your brother?”

“Oh, so you have heard this story before,” he teased.

“That’s why you didn’t mind letting Data play father to Oona. She was supposed to be his, wasn’t she?”

“Damn, you have heard this story,” he said sombrely.

“So Oona is completely synthetic?”

“Yep, while Zoe was a hybrid; just human enough to procreate and live a fairly normal life. She also resembled us more than Oona. Oona looks a lot like her grandmother, Juliana...but that’s another story.”

Tilly smiled weakly. It was strange to hear how a person could exist for so long and still be so fixated on one period of their life. She wrapped her arms around him and decided to live in the here and now, hoping he would join her.

However, as they kissed and he deepened it, she couldn’t help but feel haunted by the apparition of Lee. What if he decided to go against his wife wishes, especially now that he had seen it could be done? She tried not to give in to her concerns and instead gave into him. 

......


	18. Strawberry Fields Forever

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our strange tale comes to a close...sort of.

Living is easy with eyes closed  
Misunderstanding all you see  
It’s getting hard to be someone  
But it all works out  
It doesn’t matter much to me

**********

Tilly made sure never to mention a word about the hologram that had sporadically popped into being. She was too busy enjoying Lore now that he was back to normal...well normal in how she knew him.

They managed to push the two bunks together, since one alone was entirely too narrow to comfortable hold the both them. Moments later their clothes were coming off, thrown idly here and there about the room.

Tilly couldn’t help but let her eager hands explore Lore’s restored body. A red hot flame of jealousy shot through her when she recalled how Osyraa had taken advantage of him and enjoyed the improvements meant for only her. 

She straddled him, impassioned to express how much she missed him; and was pleased as punch when he indulged himself by exploring her body and messaging her buttocks. He guided her to him and entered her core. She had forgotten how good it felt to have him fill her up and she wanted nothing more in that moment than to ride him into ecstasy.

After they both climaxed they collapsed in a pile of entwined limps with their chests heaving to catch their breath. Lore more so to cool his systems than to take in oxygen. After a few minutes he placed a blanket over their naked bodies and pulled her in to lie with her head on his chest. 

They were quiet again for a time as she ran one of her hands up and down his arm. It was such a nice change to have flesh covering his once exposed structures. She didn’t have to worry about getting pinched, or having her hair caught. Plus, the muscles were a lovely addition. She had never really lingered on her concerns that he was an android, but his upgrade made it much easier to forget.

“I missed you,” Lore murmured in the quiet of the room.

“Me too. Sorry I was so unreceptive,” Tilly said with regret.

“Hey, I have a questionable history,” he told her with humour, “I would have doubted my sincerity too.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t have to be such a bitch about it.”

He laughed a little at her choice of words and she had to admit it was a wonderful sound to hear again.

“I don’t mind. I like my women feisty,” he said with another chuckle deep in his chest.

Tilly’s mind drifted towards Lee again and she frowned. She leaned up on one elbow and looked down at him. “Is it hard for you now...still trying to maintain a relationship of sorts with Oona?”

Lore frowned as well and looked away from her. “No more tonight. Please just let the past stay in the past now?”

She nodded slowly and lovingly smoothed the hair off of his forehead. “Yes, of course. Forget I said anything.”

He took her hand in his and kissed it. Then just because he felt like it, he licked it in an obscene display lust.

“You know, I have another place on my body that you could put that devilish tongue of yours to good use,” she said heatedly, her eyes becoming hooded and dark.

Lore wagged his eyebrows at her before diving under the blanket and disappearing in a flurry of eagerness to please.

Tilly couldn’t help but cry out and giggle loudly as he tickled her sides before using his hands to spread her thighs apart. Then his hot mouth went to work on her most sensitive places. She bit her lip as her mind went blank. It was a good thing too because she was about to scold herself again for being so averse to his attention earlier. 

.......

In the days that followed Tilly would sneak away from her post whenever she could and they would have quick tumble. She really didn’t give much thought to what Lore was doing with his time when she wasn’t with him, but he seemed to be settling in more or less.

So when they got orders to deliver dilithium to fairly functional space port she was taken by surprise when Lore looked ready to disembark.

“What are you doing?” Tilly asked as she watched him saunter up to the landing party.

“I think it’s time I move on,” Lore said with one of his charming smiles. “I was able to find a good deal on a small merchant ship and the trader is meeting me here.”

Tilly felt numb as he kissed her with affection and readied himself to beam down with them.

“Why didn’t you say something before?” she questioned under her breath.

“Because this was always the plan,” he said out of the side of his mouth like he was mocking her. “Besides I just heard back from the guy. Don’t be mad. This was never going to be permanent.”

“Um, Ensign Tilly, are you ready?” asked Stamets with some hesitation. 

“Hang on one sec, Stamets,” she said over her shoulder. 

Then she turned on Lore and hit him over and over again as hard as she could in a fit of rage. She was so angry. All that bullshit and lying and making her work to get even an inkling of who he was and his past and now he was just leaving? 

Lore just there stood taking every blow and let her tire herself out. Once she was emotionally drained she flipped her hair out of her face and stood in a perfect calm.

“Now, I’m ready,” she said softly.

They beamed down and Tilly took a moment longer with Lore before walking off with her team.

“I guess this is goodbye,” she said sadly.

“Only for now,” he said before leaning into her and kissing her one last time. “I’ll call you when I get settled into the ship and we can plan your next vacation,” he said like everything was normal.

“Yeah, sure,” she said in return. “Sounds good to me. No kidnapping next time.”

He smirked and shook his head at her. “I love you, Red,” he said as he took her hand.

“I love you too, you psycho,” she replied, squeezing his hand as tight as she could.

They slowly let go and then walked away in opposite directions. Tilly knew in her gut that she would see him again. What she didn’t know was that Jett Reno had slipped him one of the independent hard light projection units and he had spent his idle time downloading a compressed copy of his dead wife’s hologram into it. Lore took it out of one of his pockets and smiled as he examined it in the natural sunlight.

“Let’s go get us a ship, Lee,” he whispered. Then he tucked the pod away again and whistled to himself as went in search of the trader.

......

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I might get some hate for how I ended this one, but I feel like I’ve gotten all I can out of this story and this way I can always write another instalment some day. Thank you all so, so much for reading! I hope you all got something out of this. I feel like even I will have to go back and read this again sometime :) Cheers!


End file.
